[Grammar] What does 'all time' mean?

[Heidi]

Dear friends,

Please help me with the following two questions. Thank you!

#1 Is the sentence below correct? Is it better to insert the word 'a' before sixteenth?
(in class a teacher says) "Today we want to focus on the life of sixteenth century Italian artist, Michelangelo."

#2 What does 'all time' mean in the sentence below?
"Let's discover one of the greatest artists of all time."

 

[2006]

Dear friends,

Please help me with the following two questions. Thank you!

#1 Is the sentence below correct? Yes, but I wouldn't put a comma after "artist".

Is it better to insert the word 'a' before sixteenth?
(in class a teacher says) "Today we want to focus on the life of sixteenth century Italian artist, Michelangelo."

#2 What does 'all time' mean in the sentence below? "of all time" means 'ever', 'in the entire history of art'.

"Let's discover one of the greatest artists (of all time)(ever).


"

2006

 

[Heidi]

Dear 2006,

Is it incorrect to write "we want to focus on the life of a sixteenth century Italian artist Michelangelo" ?

Thank you!

 

[2006]

Dear 2006,

Is it incorrect to write "we want to focus on the life of a sixteenth century Italian artist Michelangelo" ?

Thank you!

Sorry, I forgot about that part.
You can use "a", but it's not necessary, and it's not better with "a". But if you add "a", you should have a comma after "artist".

 

[Amigos4]

Dear 2006,

Is it incorrect to write "we want to focus on the life of a sixteenth century Italian artist Michelangelo" ?

Thank you!

How about: We want to focus on the life of Michelangelo, a sixteenth century Italian artist. ;-)

 

[Heidi]

How about: We want to focus on the life of Michelangelo, a sixteenth century Italian artist. ;-)

After seeing your post, now I understand what 2006's point was. The use of comma is magic!
Thank you, amigos4 and 2006!

 

[BobK]

Heidi: this use of 'of all time' has given rise to 'all-time' being used as a pre-modifier: 'Dylan is one of the all-time greats.' The hyphen helps clarify this meaning, but not everybody uses one.

b

 

[Heidi]

Thank you all my teachers, 2006, amigos4 and Bobk!

First, I didn't find anything about the phrase 'of all time' in my dictionaries. Later, Bobk gave me a clue to look for 'all-time'. Now I've found more example sentences about the phrases 'of all time' and 'all-time', and I would like to share with others who might be interested.

"The price of wheat had reached an all-time low."
"They reached an all-time record score."
"He's one of the greatest players of all time."
"Beethoven's compositions are among the greatest of all time."
"Summer temperatures reached an all-time high."

 

[BobK]

:up: Maybe it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway - I'm just that kind of guy ;-)) that 'all-time' collocates with extremes - all-time great/best/worst/low/high/favourite... etc. You couldn't have, say 'all-time pink'.

b