Talk:lightning in a bottle

Deletion discussion

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lightning in a bottle

Sense 4: Stored electricity, as in a capacitor.

Neither of the citations gives any evidence that "lightning in a bottle" means "stored electricity" - in fact, they're both incompatible with that reading (*"you could shut up the stored electricity"; *"But they say Franklin succeeded in putting stored electricity and corking it") - and even if it did, it's SOP. Franklin was after all working with literal lightning at a time when capacitors were literal bottles. Smurrayinchester (talk) 14:43, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Is this an RFD as opposed to an RFV matter? You're saying it's SoP because it's actual lightning in an actual bottle? When has that ever occurred? Renard Migrant (talk) 15:15, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

I think treating it as an RfV allows us more time to find valid cites, which, though unlikely, may exist, especially from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In neither of the citations does in a bottle function as a modifier of lightning, rather as a locative or instrumental modifier of the verbs. It seems like citing home in a taxi from I went home in a taxi. DCDuring TALK 16:19, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

There is a dubious brand of cider in the UK called "White Lightning", which comes in a bottle of course. Donnanz (talk) 19:09, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah memories of being a teenager. Renard Migrant (talk) 19:36, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Now in the past tense, withdrawn from sale in 2009 apparently. Donnanz (talk) 09:40, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• Closed as not an RfD matter: Nobody's made any valid RfD arguments; all the discussion is about citations, and therefore this should be taken to RfV. Purplebackpack89 14:33, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

RFV discussion: August 2015–February 2016

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lightning in a bottle

Rfv-sense: "Stored electricity, as in a capacitor"

The two purported citations are not of the term in question. They are of lightning and in a bottle, where in a bottle is adverbial. To make this clear: "I went home in a taxi." is not valid attestation of home in a taxi. DCDuring TALK 15:22, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Agree. If you "catch a fish in a net", you are not catching the entire fish-in-net object, but using the net to do the catching. Equinox ◑ 16:37, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Neither of them seem to support the definition that's in question. So I consider the grammar question moot. Renard Migrant (talk) 14:29, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

• The analysis above is sound. RFV failed. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 02:45, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

Non-idiomatic

Are we sure about this? lattermint (talk) 11:57, 1 August 2023 (UTC)