Hello Cor, why don't you suggest it under "New Entry for the Dictionary" with a couple of references from the internet or dictionaries, and perhaps the context - I think the translation might change depending on whether you mean a plant which has constant sunlight, or a lamp that doesn't blink.

BTW we do sometimes use "burning" when talking about light bulbs etc, e.g: "Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt lightbulb burning for almost 4 ..." http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/lcswmd/Stats.asp

Yeah ok, like I said, the Germanic people brought that into English.
It was a close miss that the Americans voted on making English their official language instead of German. Americans do also use terms like "I'm going to make my bed this morning", meaning that they'll tidy up their bed (instead of creating a new one) - which doesn't make it literally correct, although it is colloquially used. That doesn't mean those kinds of mistakes should be constantly made commonplace.

I'm curious - how many centuries would these phrases have to be in the language before you consider them not to be a mistake any longer?

burn
4 a To emit heat or light by or as if by fire: ... the sun burning brightly in the sky.
5 To give off light; shine: a light burning over the door.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

make
8b To get ready or set in order for use: made the bed.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

make
9a arrange (a bed) for use
Pocket Oxford Dictionary

Germanic
Indo-European family to which English, German, and Scandinavian languages (minus Finnish) belong.
http://www.acs.appstate.edu/~mcgowant/4660glo...

Cor

- do phrases such as 'the light burned brightly' in English really originate directly from German? I'd be interested to know whether you are assuming this because there is a literal equivalent in German, or whether you could point me to some evidence (an internet link would be good)

- if you are right on this point, then just because the phrase comes directly from German it doesn't make it invalid: modern languages, and particularly English, wouldn't exist today in the forms we know them without influences from many different languages

- similarly, 'to make the bed' (as used in BE as well as AE) is not incorrect or a mistake just because its literal meaning is different from the meaning of the phrase as a whole, and nor is it partcularly colloquial. Getting to know the idiosyncracies of a language is half the fun of learning it!

Well ok guys, I only have one question.

When the heat generated inside the electrical cabinet of one of our machines gets so hot, that the push button (which is actually the only opening to the outside) no longer just gives off light, but actually starts melting from the inside and then burning, how are you going to describe that state differently than the normal state that the light is in? *I guess it's just normal that the light is burning - chuckle*

cor: that would be "on fire".

The etymology is probably: a candle burns, an oil-lamp burns, a gas light burns, so when this new-fangled "electricity" came along, people used the same words for the new invention too.

... und das ewige Licht brenne ihnen!

Lux perpetua
Das Zitat heißt aber richtig: "... und das ewige Licht *leuchte* ihnen"

Schreibt nicht Jack London in einer seiner Erzählung von einem Mann in Alaska, den sie "Burning Daylight" nannten, weil er seine Kameraden mit dem Ruf "Up, up, daylight's burning" zu wecken pflegte. Germanismen, glaube ich, waren London fremd.