idiom
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪdiəm/
ipa: [ˈɪdɪəm]
ipa: [ˈɪɾiəm]
rhymes: -iəm
Forms: form: idioms
form: idiomata
form: used uncountably
Etymology: From Middle French idiome, and its source, Late Latin idioma, from Ancient Greek ἰδίωμα (idíōma, “a peculiarity, property, a peculiar phraseology, idiom”), from ἰδιοῦσθαι (idioûsthai, “to make one's own, appropriate to oneself”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private, personal, peculiar, separate”).
Senses: examples: text: In English, idiom requires the indefinite article in a phrase such as "she's an engineer", whereas in Spanish, idiom forbids it.
text: Some of the usage prescriptions improved clarity and were kept; others that yielded discordant violations of idiom were eventually revised.
synonyms: idiomaticness
idiomaticity
glosses: A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people.
examples: text: I have to use the same assignment and call to raw_input in two places. How can I avoid that? I can use the while True/break idiom: […]
ref: 2005, Magnus Lie Hetland, Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, →ISBN, page 100:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
synonyms: idiomaticness
idiomaticity
glosses: A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people.
A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.
examples: text: In the idiom of the day, they were sutlers, although today they'd probably be called vendors.
text: Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of "like" has spread through the idiom of the young.
ref: 2010 January 13, Christopher Hitchens, “The Other L-Word”, in Vanity Fair:
glosses: A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context etc.
examples: text: She often spoke in idioms, pining for salad days and complaining about pots calling the kettle black.
text: You’re history, we say […]. Surely it is an American idiom. Impossible to imagine a postwar European saying, “You’re history. . . . That’s history,” meaning fuhgeddaboudit, pal.
ref: 2008, Patricia Hampl, “You’re History”, in Patricia Hampl, Elaine Tyler May, editors, Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life, Minnesota Historical Society, →ISBN, page 134:
glosses: An established phrasal expression whose meaning may not be deducible from the literal meanings of its component words.
examples: text: the idiom of the expressionists
glosses: An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style.
Synonyms: sense: language variety
word: dialect
sense: language variety
word: language
sense: language variety
word: languoid
sense: language variety
word: lect
sense: language variety
word: vernacular
word: expression
word: form of words
word: idiotism
word: locution
word: phrase
Derived terms: bromidiom
idiomacy
idiomatic
idiomatical
idiomatically
idiomaticize
idiom blend
idiomless
Related terms: idiolect
idiosyncratic
idiot
phrasal verb