idiom, n.
Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French idiome; Latin idiōma.
Etymology: < Middle French, French idiome distinctive form of speech of a particular people or country, regional variety of a language (1544; 1527 as ydiomat ; 1611 (in Cotgrave) in sense ‘specific character or individuality of a language’), distinctive style or convention in music, art, architecture, writing, etc. (1831 or earlier; the specific theological sense ‘property of Christ as either human or divine’ is not paralleled until later: 1687) and its etymon classical Latin idiōma (in post-classical Latin also ydeoma, ydioma) special term or phrase used by an individual or group, in post-classical Latin also language (7th cent.), peculiarity, special property (from 12th cent. in British sources), dialect (13th cent. in a British source), spoken form of language (14th cent. in a British source) < Hellenistic Greek ἰδίωμα peculiarity, property, peculiarity of style, form of language peculiar to a particular individual < ancient Greek ἰδιοῦσθαι to make one's own, to appropriate ( < ἴδιος own, private, peculiar: see idio- comb. form) + -μα (see -oma comb. form).
Compare Catalan idioma (1696), Spanish idioma language (early 15th cent.), Portuguese idioma (a1710), Italian idioma (a1321), also German Idiom (1576, originally with Latinate ending as idioma ). In β. forms directly < classical Latin idiōma.
I. Senses relating to language.
1. The specific character or individuality of a language; the manner of expression considered natural to or distinctive of a language; a language's distinctive phraseology. Now rare.
1573 T. Twyne tr. H. Llwyd Breuiary of Britayne sig. ¶ viii
Idiome, or proprietie of the British tongue.
1598 E. Guilpin Skialetheia sig. C5
Oh how the varges from his blacke pen wrung, Would sauce the Idiome of the English tongue.
1621 T. W. tr. S. Goulart Wise Vieillard 5
A word, which according to the Idiom and propriety of the language wherein he spake, may be translated liues.
1644 Milton Of Educ. 2
The ill habit..of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom.
1667 Dryden Let. to Sir R. Howard in Annus Mirabilis 1666 Pref.
The terms of Arts in every Tongue bearing more of the Idiom of it then any other words.
1683 Britanniæ Speculum 39
The Idiom of it, as to the main, appears to be Teutonick.
1702 J. E. Edzard God save Queen 2
Answering as well to the true Idiom of the German Tongue, as the Sense of the Sacred language.
1754 Bp. T. Sherlock Disc.
(1759)
I. vi. 189
To bring anything to light..is..in the Idiom of the English Tongue, to discover or reveal a thing.
1800 Neighbourhood I. xx. 119
From the French usher he had acquired enough to violate at every word the idiom of his mother tongue, but the gabble of a foreign language imperfectly taught.
1832 Examiner 4 Mar. 149/1
The Westminster prologizer has been led into his error by the spirit and pure idiom of the English translation.
1862 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Personal Relig.
(1873)
viii. iii. 218
In their attempt to maintain idiom.
1947 M. E. Boylan This Tremendous Lover
(new ed.)
xix. 303
The first part of the reply has to be understood according to the idiom of the Aramaic tongue.
2004 C. Ó Dochartaigh in H. Gaskill Reception of Ossian in Europe viii. 175
It reflects a concept of foreignization, where the reader is deliberately exposed to the idiom of another language.
1573—2004(Hide quotations)
2.
a. A language, especially a person or people's own language; the distinctive form of speech of a particular people or country.
1575 G. Gascoigne Certayne Notes Instr. in Posies sig. U.j
So would I wishe you to frame all sentences in their mother phrase and proper Idióma.
1588 J. Harvey Discoursiue Probl. conc. Prophesies 41
A hawty Latin stile and antique Ideome.
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. xii. 86
To allow euery word polisillable one long time..which should be where his sharpe accent falls in our owne ydiome most aptly and naturally.
c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue
(1870)
ii. x. §10
These [verbs] our idiom conjugates onelie in tuo tymes, the tyme present and tym past.
1674 R. Godfrey Var. Injuries in Physick 48
The writings of Glauber, which were translated into the English Idiom.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 165. ¶3
The Histories of all our former Wars are transmitted to us in our Vernacular Idiom.
1774 T. Falkner Descr. Patagonia iv. 102
The Tehuelhets, who in Europe are known by the name of Patagons, have been, through ignorance of their idiom, called Tehuelchus: for chu signifies country or abode, and not people; which is expressed by the word het.
1790 tr. J.-B.-B. de Lesseps Trav. Kamtschatka II. 105
The idiom of the Koriacs has no affinity to that of the Kamtschadales.
a1832 Encycl. Metrop. XX. 398/2
According to..[some] authorities, the Cuman tribes first entered Hungary in 1086, were converted to Christianity in 1410, and, adopting the Magyar language, soon lost the recollection of their own idiom.
1860 F. W. Farrar Ess. Origin Lang. i. 20
The divine spark which glows in all idioms.
1922 E. J. Harrison Lithuania ii. 32
In 1654 the Old Prussians..renounced their Balto-Lithuanian idiom in favour of German.
1976 M. Münzel in W. A. Veenhoven et al. Case Stud. Human Rights & Fund. Freedoms IV. 400
Mr. Stolz and the other North Americans with him were not able..to speak with the ‘wild’ Aché in their own idiom, although the ‘tame’ Aché from the Reservation were.
1990 D. Ackerman Nat. Hist. Senses iv. 215
On the island of Gomera in the Canaries, descendants of an aboriginal people called the Guanches,..use an ancient whistling language..from as far away as nine miles, they hear one another and converse as their ancestors did. Silbo Gomero the idiom is called.
1575—1990(Hide quotations)
b. In narrower sense: a dialect or variety of a language; a form of a language limited to or distinctive of a particular area, category of people, period of time, or context.
1593 J. Eliot Ortho-epia Gallica 26/2
Herodotus the Ionian, who was a graue, sage and most eloquent Historiographer in his Ionian Idiome.
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes
So manie, and so much differing Dialects, and Idiomes, as be vsed and spoken in Italie.
1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor 308
The Honor of taking armes (which in our present idiom may be calld Knighting).
1642 J. Howell Instr. Forreine Travell xi. 138
There is in Italy..the Milanese, the Parmasan, the Piemontese, and others..and all these have severall Dialects and Idiomes of Speech.
1690 I. Newton Let Nov. in Corr.
(1961)
III. 141
And the Apostles, as is well known, spake greek in the Syriac idiome.
1755 Connoisseur No. 53
(1774)
II. 139
In the vulgar idiom Bunging your eye.
1777 J. Richardson Dict. Persian, Arabic & Eng. p. iv/2
The idiom of Farsistan (Persia Proper)..had an extensive range over the most civilized of the lower districts: whilst the Pehlavi prevailed chiefly around the Mazenderan or Caspian Sea.
a1794 Gibbon Misc. Wks.
(1814)
I. 188
On the spot I read..the classics of the Tuscan idiom.
1823 T. Ross tr. F. Bouterwek Hist. Spanish & Portuguese Lit. I. 13
The vulgar idiom spoken by the Galician water~carriers in Madrid.
1874 H. R. Reynolds John the Baptist v. §3. 338
There were ‘voices’..which expressed in some vernacular idiom of Hebrew or Greek the thoughts of the Almighty.
1937 Massachusetts: Guide to Places & People
(Federal Writers' Project)
iii. 331
Even that would not clear up some of the local idiom. A ship bunk's mattress was a ‘donkey's breakfast’. The ‘apple-tree fleet’ was the class of coasting schooners.
1942 W. Lewis Let. 27 Jan.
(1963)
315
They go about talking to themselves—in the purest idiom of the Pearly King.
1964 E. Palmer tr. A. Martinet Elements Gen. Linguistics v. 139
Linguists have proposed the term ‘diglossia’ to designate a situation where a community uses..both a more colloquial idiom of less prestige and another of more learned and refined status.
1975 Country Life 8 May 1176/2
No one..is in a position to criticise... No one is, in the current idiom, that squeaky-clean.
1998 S. Dingo Dingo xiii. 152
Mrs Campbell, in Aussie idiom, was not cut out for it, did not have the internal fortitude for the life she married into.
2003 M. Abley Spoken Here viii. 140
Catalan imperceptibly shades into Occitan, Occitan blurs into the jumble of Alpine idioms known as Franco-Provençal, and Franco-Provençal slides into a regional version of mainstream French.
1593—2003(Hide quotations)
3. A form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc., used in a distinctive way in a particular language, dialect, or language variety; spec. a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from the meanings of the individual words.
a1631 J. Donne Serm.
(1956)
VIII. 293
There are certaine idioms, certaine formes of speech, certaine propositions, which the holy Ghost repeats severall times.
1642 J. Howell Instr. Forreine Travell iii. 30
Every speech hath certaine Idiomes, and customary Phrases of its own.
1670 H. Stubbe Censure upon Certaine Passages in Hist. Royal Soc. 48
Who can blame the sober disputers,..who may use Greek words Hellenistically, or as Hebraisms; and use the language of one Countrey with relation to the Idioms, customs, sentiments of another?
1705 J. Edwards Preacher 235
He authorizes us not to boggle at the vulgar Phrase and Idiom, but to make use of them on occasion.
1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron II. vi. vii. 22
The Hebrew Tongue, which, as every other Language, had its idioms.
1776 G. Campbell Philos. of Rhetoric I. ii. iii. 473
It is an idiom of the cockney language.
1801 D. Stewart Life & Writings W. Robertson 152
An admixture of Paduan idioms.
1871 Pub. School Lat. Gram. §122
The Adverbial use of the Attribute and Apposite is an important idiom.
1931 A. Christie Sittaford Myst. xvi. 128
‘Stony broke, I believe,’ said Mr Rycroft. ‘I hope I am using that idiom correctly.’
1960 W. V. Quine Word & Object vi. 222
The subjunctive conditional is an idiom for which we cannot hope to find a satisfactory general substitute in realistic terms.
1982 J. Strässler Idioms in Eng. iv. 123
If a hearer is unfamiliar with an idiom he tries to reconstruct the speaker's utterance meaning based on the literal interpretation and will most probably refute it as irrelevant or false.
2008 New Scientist 29 Mar. 31/3
Nerrière is working on a book of Globish for native English speakers, in which he warns us to speak in simple sentences and avoid idioms.
a1631—2008(Hide quotations)
II. Non-linguistic senses.
4. A specific form, manifestation, nature, or property of something, now chiefly as fig. use of branch I.; (Theol.) a property of Christ as either human or divine. Cf. sense 5.
1596 C. Fitzgeffry Sir Francis Drake sig. C3v
Vnpartiall Iudge of all, save present state, Truth's Idioma of the things are past.
1614 R. Brathwait Schollers Medley 91
The perfect Idiome and Character of his Natiue Properties is already depicted.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. ii. Concl. 464
Who can looke vpon..those wondrous processions and idiomes [of the Godhead] reserued for Angels eyes?
1654 Bp. J. Taylor Real Presence 191
So we may say, this is Christs body, by the communication of the Idioms or proprieties to the bread with which it is united.
1694 R. Franck Northern Mem. 177
That represents the Idiom or Form of a Horn.
1701 S. Nye Doctr. Holy Trinity i. 25
In respect of one Property, Character, or Idiom, the Divine Essence is named the Father.
1789 T. Taylor tr. Proclus Elements Theol. in tr. Proclus Philos. & Math. Comm. II. 394
By the resounding echo as it were of soul, it imparts its idiom or peculiarity to the body.
1828 Macaulay Ess. Hist. in Misc. Writings
(1889)
152
Connection..not so close as to destroy the idioms of national opinion and feeling.
1866 D. W. Simon tr. I. A. Dorner Hist. Devel. Doctr. Person of Christ II. ii. 179
The two natures or substances united themselves in such a manner as to constitute one single and indivisible hypostasis; and as each of the so very different natures retains its own idioms or attributes, these latter enter into so inward an union, that what is an attribute of the one nature becomes also an attribute of the other.
1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 15 Aug.
(1955)
IV. 301
I took unspeakable pains in preparing to write Romola—neglecting nothing I could find that would help me to what I may call the ‘Idiom’ of Florence, in the largest sense one could stretch the word to.
1870 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers
(1959)
195
I noticed it [sc. snow]..sketched in intersecting edges bearing ‘idiom’..I have no other word yet for that which takes the eye or mind in a bold hand..not being beauty nor true inscape yet gives interest.
1936 R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 46
To form the idiom of her flesh I faceted in clearest thought An arctic crystal in whose mesh Of frosty rays the sun is caught.
2000 R. F. Capon Fingerprints of God i. ii. 34
The classic Christian doctrine that goes by the name of communicatio idiomatum, ‘the communication of idioms’—holds that as long as you're talking about the Person of Christ, you may apply any idiom or property of either nature to him.
1596—2000(Hide quotations)
5. A distinctive style or convention in music, art, architecture, writing, etc.; the characteristic mode of expression of a composer, artist, author, etc.
1865 Rep. Proc. Church Congr. 302
It is unreasonable to expect ordinary men and women to appreciate or use easily or gracefully a musical idiom or tonality which scholars and students began to give up three centuries ago.
1912 Dict. National Biogr. 1901–11 I. 309/2
Some of the episodes..exhibit beauty and pathos, which the author's fidelity to his period enabled him to clothe in an idiom of purity and charm.
1921 J. B. McEwen First Steps Mus. Comp. 5
An intentional reversion to the contrapuntal idiom.
1923 H. Crane Let. 9 Feb.
(1965)
121
Tate has a whole lot to offer when he finds his way out of the Eliot idiom.
1927 Grove's Dict. Music
(ed. 3)
II. 537/2
The folk-songs of all nations have been cultivated..for the sake, mainly, of their undoubted freshness and spontaneity of idiom as compared with pseudo-classical models.
1939 Burlington Mag. Aug. 90/1
Buildings and industrial products which are now the accepted ‘idiom’ of design throughout the modern world.
1955 Times 9 May 3/1
We in this country have had experience of Anglo-American cooperation in film-making, and, whatever may be said in its favour from the practical, economic point of view, it certainly tends to blur and weaken the natural idiom and character of the countries involved.
1957 S. Dance in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 43
The three great names in the presentation of jazz in the pure New Orleans idiom..were King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong.
1971 H. S. Kushner When Children ask about God v. 126
The events are no different from the ones that befell our Biblical ancestors; only the idiom in which we describe and respond to them has changed.
2005 Time Out N.Y. 3 Mar. 147/1
They sing about Jesus in the unlikely idiom of boy-band pop, complete with five-part harmony.
1865—2005(Hide quotations)