The term 'Idiom' has various meanings, like a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people or 'The style of a particular artist or school or movement; an imaginative orchestral idiom and so on Amongst all these varied meanings, there is one which stands out and is most commonly understood when spoken or discussed about. In its most understood form - Idiom is an is an expression, word, or phrase whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements or from the general grammatical rules of a language. In simple words, Idioms are words whose meaning is something different from what the words literally stand for. Because of their characteristics, Idioms are called ‘Figure of Speech’ and sometimes ‘Metaphorical Expression’ or simply Metaphors. The word Idiom has been derived from the Greek words idios, meaning personal or private and idiousthai, meaning to make your own. Idioms can be confusing for many of us as we might take the literal meaning of a written or spoken word while it has been used in another sense. This is because we have not heard the combination of words used and they might have a hidden meaning as well. Idioms can become even more confusing if we happen to be in a foreign land. In some cases Idioms tend to be more unusual when they are translated into another language; either its meaning changes or the sentence becomes meaningless.
Examples
Spanish – ‘Me estoy comiendo el coco’.
Literal Meaning: I'm eating the coconut.
Meaning in English: I'm trying to think.
French – ‘Conduire comme un pied’
Literal Meaning: To drive like a foot.
Meaning in English: To drive horribly.
However, there are some exceptions, some Idioms can be literal in their sense and they can have a literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in another situation.
Example:
I sat on the Fence and watched the game - Here the Bold Text has a Literal Meaning.
When Happy and Dilshad argue, it is best to sit on the fence and not make either of them angry - Here the Bold Text means 'Not supporting either side in a dispute'.
The idiomatic meaning of a sentence thus changes as per a situation. In this manner, an Idiom is a phrase which does not always follow the normal rules of meaning and grammar. Though they do not follow grammatical rules and are sort of informal expressions, they are popular and have a widespread usage and acceptance in formal communications. Some Idioms are so common that most native speakers do not even realize that they are using idioms. Therefore they are also known as ‘Sayings’ as well. Sayings and Phrases An Idiom can be easily understood if we know in which context, it is being used. Every language has its own Idioms. There are about 25,000 Idiomatic Expressions in the English language. The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms explains over 7,000 idioms current in British, American and Australian English. The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, based on the 200 million words of American English text in the Cambridge International Corpus, unlocks the meaning of more than 5,000 idiomatic phrases used in contemporary American English. There are various criteria's under which Idioms have been classified , they have been classified on the basis of country where they are spoken idioms, which are used in Britain, in Australia, in America, in other countries, where people speak English, or idioms, which are old-fashioned, but yet they exist in isolated societies books and other sources of historical information. Idioms may sound silly but they are a very important part of a language as they showcase a country’s history and traditions
Idiom Definitions
Idiomatic Expressions
Idiomatic Expressions another term for Idioms. Idiomatic Expressions are able to communicate something more than just the meanings of the individual words. Idiomatic expressions are non-standard speech, slang or dialect that are natural to native speakers of a language. They convey a clear and meaningful message in very few words which would otherwise become lengthy to explain in non-idiomatic manner. For example Bad Apple, Act of God, Cold War etc.
Idiom Examples
Some common examples of Idioms:
Importance of Idioms
Idioms and Phrases
There is a very bleak difference between Idioms and Phrases. Phrases are group of words which makes sense, but not complete sense where as Idioms are group of words which have a figurative meaning. Because the difference is almost negligible, Idioms and Phrases go hand in hand and are used in conjunction with each other. In fact, Idioms are Phrases which don't make sense when broken into their parts, but can be understood as a whole.