idiom

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”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪdi.əm/

• Audio (GB)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdi.əm

idiom (plural idioms or idiomata) (sometimes used uncountably)

1. A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people.

   In English, idiom requires the indefinite article in a phrase such as "she's an engineer", whereas in Spanish, idiom forbids it.

   Some of the usage prescriptions improved clarity and were kept; others that yielded discordant violations of idiom were eventually revised.

   Synonyms: idiomaticness, idiomaticity

   1. (programming) A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.
      • 2005, Magnus Lie Hetland, Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, →ISBN, page 100:

        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: […]

2. A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context etc.

   In the idiom of the day, they were sutlers, although today they'd probably be called vendors.

   • 2010 January 13, Christopher Hitchens, “The Other L-Word”, in Vanity Fair:

     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.

3. An established phrasal expression whose meaning may not be deducible from the literal meanings of its component words.

   She often spoke in idioms, pining for salad days and complaining about pots calling the kettle black.

   • 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:

     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.

4. An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style.

   the idiom of the expressionists

• (language variety): dialect (loosely), language (loosely), languoid, lect, vernacular (loosely)
• (phrase): expression (loosely), form of words (loosely), idiotism, locution (loosely), phrase (loosely)

• idiolect
• idiosyncratic
• idiot

• Category:Idioms by language:
  • Category:English idioms
• phrasal verb

• idiom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “idiom”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “idiom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “idiom”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Eugene E. Loos [et al.], editors (2003), “idiom”, in Glossary of Linguistic Terms, Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.

• imido, imido-, modii

• IPA^(key): [ˈɪdɪjom]
• IPA^(key): [ˈɪdɪjoːm]
• Hyphenation: idiom

idiom m inan

1. idiom (established expression whose meaning is not deducible from the literal meanings of its component words)
   • 1972, Nový orient:

     Před běžným „Nashledanou", které Peršané vyjadřují slovy „nechť je Bůh vaším opatrovníkem", dáme přednost idiomu „vaše laskavost nebo pozornost je (byla) nesmírná" nebo „nechť se vysoká laskavost nezmenší" ...

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1985, Studie a práce linguistické:

     Stejně málo významné byly pro IF pokusy přiblížit význam idiomů ve vágních pojmech přenesenosti, obraznosti, průhlednosti apod.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1996, Časopis pro moderní filologii:

     Trochu konzervativní český uživatel Schemannova slovníku bude možná zpočátku postrádat u některých idiomů jejich vysvětlení, jak byl zvyklý kupříkladu z dosud (do r. 1993) nejobsažnějšího slovníku tohoto typu ...

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2005, Zdeněk Stříbrný, Proud času:

     Vyjádřil to pěkným anglickým idiomem „They have added insult to your injury“.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2014, František Čermák, Jazyk a slovník. Vybrané lingvistické studie:

     U idiomů pak můžeme postulovat existenci především početných sekundárních symbolů (otevřená hlava), popř. ikonů (kamenný obličej), méně často však už sekundárních indexů (co do, kór když).

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• idiom in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• idiom in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• idiom in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz
• idiom in Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny, czechency.org
• Česká frazeologie, Naše řeč (1984)

From Dutch idioom.

idiom (first-person possessive idiomku, second-person possessive idiommu, third-person possessive idiomnya)

1. idiom (idiomatic expression)
2. idiom (artistic style)
3. (rare, dated) idiom (language or language variety)

• “idiom” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Internationalism; compare English idiom, French idiome, German Idiom, ultimately from Late Latin idiōma, from Ancient Greek ἰδίωμα (idíōma).

• IPA^(key): /ˈi.djɔm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -idjɔm
• Syllabification: i‧diom

idiom m inan (diminutive idiomek)

1. (lexicography, rhetoric) idiom, phraseme, phraseological unit, phraseologism, set expression, set phrase, turn of phrase

   Synonyms: frazeologizm, idiomat, idiomatyzm, związek frazeologiczny

2. idiom (artistic style)

   Synonyms: idiomat, idiomatyka

3. (dated, linguistics, rare) idiom (language or language variety)

   Synonym: idiomatyzm

• idiom in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• idiom in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French idiome.

• IPA^(key): /i.diˈom/

idiom n (plural idiomuri)

1. idiom

• idiom in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

• IPA^(key): /idǐoːm/
• Hyphenation: i‧di‧om

idìōm m (Cyrillic spelling идѝо̄м)

1. idiom (idiomatic expression)
2. idiom (artistic style)
3. (linguistics) idiom (language or language variety)