greenlight
greenlight – verbo transitivo
It’s getting harder and harder to convince studios to greenlight completely original projects.
The third movie in the series is expected to be greenlit any day now.
The operation was greenlighted by the President himself.
Il verde è universalmente riconosciuto come segnale di via libera, così come il rosso significa ‘alt’, ‘stop’; dunque l’espressione to give something the green light vuol dire dare l’OK a qualcosa, mentre to get o to be given the red light il contrario.
The local council has given the green light to the new hotel in the hope that it will provide jobs for local people.
The plan got the red light from the federal government back in March.
In inglese, uno dei modi più comuni per creare nuovi significati è di partire da una parola esistente e cambiarne la funzione grammaticale. Data la simbologia universale dei colori verde e rosso era forse inevitabile la trasformazione di greenlight da sostantivo a verbo, che possiede inoltre il vantaggio della brevità: dire ‘the project is being greenlit’ è innegabilmente più breve che dire ‘the project was given the green light’. Finora non ci sono testimonianze dell’uso di redlight come verbo, ma è solo questione di tempo.
Origini del termine
La culla di greenlight come verbo pare sia stata l’industria cinematografica per riferirsi al ‘via libera’ concesso a un progetto consentendone così lo sviluppo fino alla produzione. Negli Stati Uniti il termine è diventato d’uso comune anche grazie al talent show televisivo Project Greenlight (trasmesso originariamente nel 2001 e rilanciato di recente) nel quale registi esordienti competono per vincere la possibilità di realizzare un film con l’aiuto di Ben Affleck, Matt Damon e altri professionisti del settore.
greenlight – transitive verb
It’s getting harder and harder to convince studios to greenlight completely original projects.
The third movie in the series is expected to be greenlit any day now.
The operation was greenlighted by the President himself.
A green light is a global signal for going ahead, just as a red light means stop everywhere. By extension, you can give something the green light when you approve it, while something that is vetoed is said to get or be given the red light:
The local council has given the green light to the new hotel in the hope that it will provide jobs for local people.
The plan got the red light from the federal government back in March.
It was probably inevitable that this universally understood symbolism would be taken a step further and, sure enough, greenlight made the move from noun to verb. How much more economical to say that a project was being greenlit than to say it was given the green light. So far there isn’t much evidence of redlight being used as a verb, but it can only be a matter of time.
Origins
The use of greenlight as a verb seems to have arisen in the film and TV industries, to refer to permission being given to move a project from development to pre-production. Its use may well have been popularised by the US reality TV show Project Greenlight which first aired in 2001 and has recently been revived. In it aspiring film-makers compete for the opportunity to make a feature film with the help and guidance of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and other industry professionals.
