Other forms: idioms
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be guessed from its words — like raining cats and dogs. A common idiom, an English idiom, an idiom book.
They are the hardest part of a language to learn and the last to be mastered, because there is nothing to work out — each must be met and remembered. Idiom also means the characteristic style of a language or an art. Note that the Greek means a peculiarity of one's own.
1nounidiomA phrase whose meaning cannot be guessed from its words.
“"Break a leg" is an idiom that actors use to wish each other luck.”
idiom is a fixed phrase.
Greek idioma means a peculiarity, from idios, one's own. Idiot and idiosyncrasy come from the same own.
Ancient Greek
ἰδίωμα — a peculiarity, property, a peculiar phraseology, idiom
Middle French
idiome
English, today
idiom
Built from
From Middle French idiome, and its source, Latin - idioma, from Ancient Greek ἰδίωμα (“a peculiarity, property, a peculiar phraseology, idiom”), from ἰδιοῦσθαι (“to make one's own, appropriate to oneself”), from ἴδιος (“one's own, pertaining to oneself, private, personal, peculiar, separate”). by surface analysis, idi- + -om.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA