Is "a few lifetimes" proper English?

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar
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The definition of "lifetime" goes like this: A lifetime is the length of time that someone is alive.
So I wonder whether "a few lifetimes" is proper English.

Context:

FBM comes from Former Buddhist Monk. I was one of those for a year in Thailand. Except for that, I've been in South Korea for a few lifetimes. Undergrad: Philosophy, Grad School: Philosophy (ongoing). Something else. Yada yada.

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@oristarA,

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@oristarA,

It's just used as hyperbole in most cases. That's obviously what FBM was doing.

No one person has a "few lifetimes," but the lifetimes you refer to wouldn't necessarily have to be your own. A "few lifetimes" might be used as a colorful way of saying 200-250 years, given today's average lifespan (whatever it is).

It is "proper English," and is a phrasing you will run across from time to time--but again, generally just in a hyperbolic context.

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IN THE CONTEXT OF A BUDDHIST MONK it might be interpreted as time from his past lives. (Karma, reincarnation)

Otherwise, it's an idiom that means "a long time.'

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Is "a few lifetimes" proper English?

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