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idiom| Group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each individual word in the group (for example, ‘It's raining cats and dogs’ means ‘It's raining heavily’ and kick the bucket means ‘to die’); also a style of expression in writing, speech, or music that is typical of a particular period, place, or person (for example, ‘a piece of music composed in the modern idiom’). |
| Many idioms are used only in spoken and informal language, for example dropping like flies (when many people are becoming ill or dying from the same illness). Others, such as the salt of the earth (people having praiseworthy qualities), are acceptable in more formal contexts. |
| The words in an idiom are more or less fixed. This means that they cannot be changed; for example, ‘raining geese and goats’ cannot be used instead of ‘raining cats and dogs’ to mean ‘raining heavily’, and kick the pail cannot be used instead of kick the bucket for the meaning ‘to die’. In other idioms, the words are less fixed; for example, something can be said to be selling or going like hot cakes when it is selling very well. |
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| ? Mentioned in | | ? References in classic literature |
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Archipenko, Alexander
Barlow, Samuel
Bridge, Frank
Brussilovsky, Evgeny
Cain, James M
film score
Five, The
hyperbole
Knipper, Lev Konstantinovich
Leino, Eino
| Lieberson, Peter
Mayone, Ascanio
Niemeyer, Oscar
Petrassi, Goffredo
Rautavaara, Einojuhani
Russell, George
Sikorski, Kazimierz
Walker, T-Bone
Wilson, Olly
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| It is precisely because such phrases are not part of the current idiom that they give distinction to the style. Now my humble fear is that this double training, in language as well as in thought, imposes somewhat too heavy a burden upon the young, especially when, at the age of three years old, they are taken from the maternal care and taught to unlearn the old language -- except for the purpose of repeating it in the presence of their Mothers and Nurses -- and to learn the vocabulary and idiom of science. Neither has it been possible for the writer of it to render the full force of the Zulu idiom nor to convey a picture of the teller. |