Words & WritingGreek → English
Idiom
/ˈɪdiəm/noun
A phrase whose meaning cannot be worked out from the words in it.
The Greek roots
ἴδιος
ídios
one's own, private
Literally: “a thing of one's own”
Follow a root:ἴδιος2 words
The story of the word
An ἰδίωμα was any private property or peculiar feature, then the special usage of one particular language. The same ἴδιος gives idiot, which in Athens meant a private citizen who held no office and took no part in public business — the insult was added later, through Latin. English took idiom from French in the 1580s, first for the character of a whole language and only afterwards for the single odd fixed phrase.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 1580s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
idiotidiosyncrasyidiopathicidiolect
In a sentence
Kick the bucket is an idiom, so translating it word for word gets you nowhere.
Her English is fluent but the idioms still catch her out.