A new lease on /of life

Posted by P on November 10, 2001

In Reply to: A new lease on /of life posted by Neil Frowe on November 08, 2001

: A new lease on life seems to make sense, suggesting that life is once again yours to occupy, like a property. Why then is it always quoted as a new lease of life? Any sources, folks?

A Google search of usage of "lease on life" versus "lease of life" shows that they are about equal.

Results:

"lease +of life" 35500 matches
"lease +on life" 33400 matches

Perhaps surprising though is that in general "lease of" appears to be much more commonly used than "lease on".

Results:

"lease +of property" 6430 matches
"lease +on property" 289 matches

"lease +of +a property" 295 matches
"lease +on +a property" 183 matches

"lease +of" 216000 matches
"lease +on" 98700 matches

(The '+' is used in Google searches to ensure that common words such as 'a', 'of', 'on' are matched exactly within the phrase.)