Guess the meaning.: Troping The Light Fantastic

It's a snowclone of a // edit saying pretty obscure to a non-native English speaker. It uses Troping as placeholder word. It sounds more like a lighting effect index than its actual content/meaning. It has a perfectly usable name used as a redirect. Why is it still in use?

Obscure used here in the meaning of "I'm not from the USA nor from anywhere else in the Anglophone world".

edited 22nd Jul '11 4:23:19 AM by peccantis

I'm completely unfamiliar with the work you're referring to, but "tripping the light fantastic" is a common phrase for dancing, used in lots of works. I've seen it in mysteries and SF and various other places. I had (and have) no idea where it originally comes from, but it's quite widespread.

(In case you weren't sure, I had no problems guessing.)

edit: it's also the source for the name of the second Discworld novel, FWIW.

edited 22nd Jul '11 1:56:17 AM by Xtifr

It uses the word "trope" as a placeholder because it's an index.

Apparently, the phrase "trip the light fantastic" to refer to dancing, in those words dates back to the 1890's, though "the light fantastic" dates back even further, to at least 1645.

edited 22nd Jul '11 2:01:37 AM by Duckay

If you're referring to the Discworld book, the book was named after the phrase "tripping the light fantastic". The work is not the Trope Namer here.

edited 22nd Jul '11 2:21:43 AM by MangaManiac

edit: ignore this, I think I misinterpreted

edited 22nd Jul '11 3:29:56 AM by Xtifr

Well, that just makes it more embarrassing to me, but I've never seen that phrase used anywhere save the name of that index. I could have never guessed it was about dancing. Now that I know it's a phrase my arguments falls flatter, but still I'd like to see this renamed for the convenience of all those tropers who haven't lived in Anglophone places long enough to run into that phrase.

I hadn't heard of it either until I went on The Light Fantastic's page on That Other Wiki. I think the phrase may be a bit dead by this point.

I vaguely recalled seeing that phrase before, but even then I had no idea what it meant. I, too, had to do a Google. Full disclosure: I'm a young American. I think it's very vague and, even if I knew what the phrase meant, it gives no indication to me that it is an index for dancing tropes. I definitely think a rename is in order. I would think something as simple as "Dancing Tropes," but I can think of nothing more creative, unfortunately.

Currently it's got Dance Tropes as a redirect. I don't think getting a really creative name for an index is as important as it is for a trope, since indexes are really simply there to group things. And clearness is more favourable than wittiness.

Yeah, I'd never heard of "tripping the light fantastic" before. I'm also a relatively young American, but I do consider myself pretty well-read.

If we can find a creative name that's clearer, that would be great, but I agree that clarity trumps creativity in an index. I think the index should have the word dance or dancing in there somewhere.

These Tropes Gotta Dance?

I'd have guessed Trope related to dancing, and lo and behold it is. Title is working, no need for a rename.

Heh, cute.

The phrase sounded familiar to me, or at least "the light fantastic" did, but I had no idea what it referred to. It might be well-known but it sure isn't intuitive.

Dance Tropes is already a redirect, for those who are searching. Is there any reason other than searching why this should be renamed?

Everythings Worse With Snowclones is a valid reason to rename.

If this is a snowclone, then every pun ever made, anywhere, is a snowclone. The distinguishing characteristic of a snowclone is that it's a pattern of naming. There's no pattern here, just the one instance. The problem with snowclones is that people blindly follow the pattern even when it makes no sense. That's not the problem here because there is no pattern. This is just a one-off pun.

If you can point me to a bunch of Xing The Light Fantastic tropes, then maybe I'll agree we have a snowclone problem, but even so, I think this one wouldn't be an example of the standard problem with snowclones.

It's a turn of phrase that isn't in common, everyday use, but is still a wonderful piece of wordsmithing. It's elegant, poetic, and evocative. Keep it.

Yeah, this isn't a snowclone. It's a pun on an (arguably) archaic phrase, but it isn't a snowclone.

There could very well be reasons to rename — like if agreement is that it is too archaic for most people to know, and thus is unclear. I knew what it meant, so I'm not sure how much I agree that the term is too archaic/unknown.

Maybe we could leave the name as it is, but add a note on the page that mentions the original phrase and what it means?

The index itself is easy to find thanks to the redirect. And misuse shouldn't be a problem because indexes don't get listed or potholed on other pages.

So no, I can't think of a valid reason to change it. And the more I read it, the more I like it, for the reasons described above.

I've heard the phrase "tripping the X fantastic" before, but I haven't a clue as to what it means. I've normally seen it in some kind of snowclone.

I've seen it used, light-heartedly, in quite a few newspapers (usually in the celeb columns about how such-and-such actor is showing a lot of leg and sweeping random it girl of the month around nightclubs), and BBC announcers are fond of it too, especially since the latest round of celebrity dance shows started. But it is still in use.

Like others in this thread, the phrase is vaguely familiar to me, but I would have never, ever, ever, ever guessed it had anything to do with dancing.

I added a bit of text to explain what the expression means. Does that help?

About half the people in here say "rename" and the other half say "don't", so let's put up a crowner to see if we have a consensus either way.

I made one: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/SingleProposition/TropingTheLightFantastic

Hollering for a hook. Feel free to add pro and con points.

(Edit: I'm not sure where the voting arrows are. Do they only appear once the crowner is brought to the thread, or am I just blind?)

edited 27th Jul '11 12:26:45 PM by Embryon