DCHP-2

advanced green advance green DCHP-2 (September 2016)

• 1 n. — Automotive

  a green traffic signal that allows traffic to turn left while opposing traffic is still held back by a red light.

  Type: 5. Frequency — The term is very rarely used outside Canada (see Chart 1) and is also a contender for Canadian origin. The earliest Canadian quotation is from 1960; the earliest US citation is from 1966.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "advanced green", which is marked "Cdn", ITP Nelson, s.v. "advanced green".

  • The green light may be a solid green, a flashing green, a left-arrow turn signal, but is used only in some provinces. Note that in British Columbia, for instance, a flashing green light indicates a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk.

• 2 n. — In figurative use, rare

  signifying anything that may be protracted.

  Type: 1. Origin — a generalization from the traffic context to other domains can be seen in the early 1980s (see 1984 quotation).