# Terms of art that use prepositions in a nonstandard way

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 6, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796 "2006-01-06T20:51:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796/1 "2006-01-06T20:51:18Z")

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I’m looking for examples of the phenomenon described in the thread title: phrases that have special meaning to a group of specialists, and that begin with a perhaps unexpected preposition. I’m mainly interested in Standard American English, but other Englishes are welcome too.

Examples I’ve thought of:

**on study** (clinical research). If I become a research participant, I’d expect to be _in_ the study, not _on_ study.

**under the statute** (law, regulatory). I would probably say _according to_ or _in compliance with_ or _following_ the statute.

Others?

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796/2 "2006-01-06T22:04:16Z")

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People from New York City tend to say “on line” instead of the standard “in line,” but it’s probably all those auto fumes that’s the cause.

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796/3 "2006-01-07T00:55:09Z")

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> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> People from New York City tend to say “on line” instead of the standard “in line,” but it’s probably all those auto fumes that’s the cause.

You sure they aren’t all logged in via their PDAs or something?

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-art-that-use-prepositions-in-a-nonstandard-way/338796/4 "2006-01-07T01:01:56Z")

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**Under the gun** : Wouldn’t it be worse to be in front of the gun?