Etymologically
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idiom

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɪdiəm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French idiome and directly from Late Latin idiōma (“a peculiarity in language”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek ἰδίωμα (idíōma, “peculiarity, peculiar phraseology”),[5][2][3][4][6] from idioûsthai “to make one's own”,[5][4][6] from ídios “one's own, private”.[5][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form of speech peculiar to a people or country; its own language (1575 in the OED; 1588 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster).[7][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 1590s the word was narrowed to the variety of a language used in a district or class, a dialect (1598),[7] and widened to the specific character of a language (1598).[7] The sense “a phrase or expression peculiar to a language”, especially one whose meaning cannot be worked out from its parts, dates from 1628.[7][2][3] From 1921 it also means a characteristic style in music, art or writing.[7]

Timeline

  • 1575 – the language of a people.[7]
  • 1598 – a dialect; the specific character of a language.[7]
  • 1628 – an expression peculiar to a language.[7][2][3]
  • 1712 – idiomatic.[2]
  • 1921 – a characteristic style in music, art or writing.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An expression peculiar to a language, whose meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words, such as kick the bucket.
  2. The specific grammatical and structural character of a language.
  3. The language or dialect of a people, region or class; also, the specialized vocabulary of a group, jargon.
  4. A style of artistic expression characteristic of a person, period or medium.

Word family

  • idiomatic
  • idiolect
  • idiot
  • idiosyncrasy
  • phrase

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press