| 释义 |
idiom|ˈɪdɪəm|
Forms: 6 ydiome, ideome, 6–7 idiome, 7 ideom, 7– idiom.
[a. F. idiome (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or ad. L. idiōma, Gr. ἰδίωµα peculiarity, property, peculiar phraseology (f. ἰδιό-εσθαι to make one's own, appropriate), f. ἴδιο-ς own, private, peculiar. Cf. It., Sp., Pg. idioma. The L. form was also used for some time.]
1. a. The form of speech peculiar or proper to a people or country; own language or tongue.
[1575Gascoigne Cert. Notes Instr. Eng. Verse §11 So woulde I wish you to frame all sentences in their mother phrase, and proper Idioma.] 1588J. H[arvey] Disc. Probleme 41 A hawty Latin stile and antique Ideome. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xii[i]. (Arb.) 127 To allow euery word polisillable one long time..which should be where his sharpe accent falls in our owne ydiome most aptly and naturally. 1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 48 The writings of Glauber, which were translated into the English Idiom. 1711Addison Spect. No. 165 ⁋3 The Histories of all our former Wars are transmitted to us in our Vernacular Idiom. 1860Farrar Orig. Lang. i. 20 The divine spark which glows in all idioms.
b. In narrower sense: That variety of a language which is peculiar to a limited district or class of people; dialect.
1598Florio Ital. Dict. A iv a, So manie, and so much differing Dialects, and Idiomes, as be vsed and spoken in Italie. 1601Holland Pliny Pref. A iij b, That Dialect or Idiome which was familiar to the basest clowne. 1662J. Davies Mandelslo's Trav. 226 The Chineses..when they speak, cannot understand one the other, by reason of the diversity of the Idioms and Dialects that is among the Inhabitants of several Provinces. a1794Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) I. 188 On the spot I read..the classics of the Tuscan idiom. 1874Reynolds John Bapt. v. §3. 338 There were ‘voices’..which expressed in some vernacular idiom of Hebrew or Greek the thoughts of the Almighty.
2. The specific character, property, or genius of any language; the manner of expression which is natural or peculiar to it: = idiotism 2.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 39 Oh how the varges from his blacke pen wrung, Would sauce the Idiome of the English tongue. 1666Dryden Pref. Ann. Mirab. Wks. (Globe) 39 The terms of arts in every tongue bearing more of the idiom of it than any other words. 1683Brit. Spec. 39 The Idiom of it, as to the main, appears to be Teutonick. 1754Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. vi. 189 To bring anything to light..is..in the Idiom of the English Tongue, to discover or reveal a thing. 1862Goulburn Pers. Relig. viii. iii. (1873) 218 In their attempt to maintain idiom.
3. a. A form of expression, grammatical construction, phrase, etc., peculiar to a language; a peculiarity of phraseology approved by the usage of a language, and often having a signification other than its grammatical or logical one.
1628Donne 80 Serm. vi. (1640) 52 There are certaine idioms, certaine formes of speech..which the holy Ghost repeats severall times. 1642Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 20 Every speech hath certaine Idiomes, and customary Phrases of its own. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §7 The Hebrew tongue, which, as every other language, had its idioms. 1871Pub. School Lat. Gram. §122 The Adverbial use of the Attribute and Apposite is an important idiom.
b. A characteristic mode of expression in music, art, or writing; an instance of this.
1921J. B. McEwen First Steps Mus. Comp. 5 To put it in somewhat colloquial terms, the composer of ancient music wrote melody, the composer of modern music writes tunes. It is no part of my purpose to make comparisons between these two idioms. Ibid., An intentional reversion to the contrapuntal idiom. 1923H. Crane Let. 9 Feb. (1965) 121 Tate has a whole lot to offer when he finds his way out of the Eliot idiom. 1927Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 3) II. 537/2 The folk-songs of all nations have been cultivated..for the sake, mainly, of their undoubted freshness and spontaneity of idiom as compared with pseudo-classical models. Ibid. 538/1 The study of this melodic music has suggested many harmonic idioms of notable freshness and beauty. 1939Burlington Mag. Aug. 90/1 Buildings and industrial products which are now the accepted ‘idiom’ of design throughout the modern world. 1955Times 9 May 3/1 We in this country have had experience of Anglo-American cooperation in film-making, and, whatever may be said in its favour from the practical, economic point of view, it certainly tends to blur and weaken the natural idiom and character of the countries involved. 1957S. Dance in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 43 The three great names in the presentation of jazz in the pure New Orleans idiom..were King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. 1958B. James in P. Gammond Duke Ellington ii. 145 Ellington's music had its origins in the New Orleans style, as has so much else worthwhile in the jazz idiom.
4. Specific form or property; peculiar nature; peculiarity. Obs. exc. as fig. of 1 or 2.
[1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 34 Vnpartiall Iudge of all, save present state, Truth's Idioma of the things are past.] 1644Digby Two Treat. ii. (1645) 143 Who can looke upon..those wondrous processions and idiomes [of the Godhead] reserved for Angels eyes? 1654Jer. Taylor Real Pres. 191 So we may say, this is Christs body, by the communication of the Idioms or proprieties to the bread with which it is united. 1658R. Franck North. Mem. (1694) 177 It represents the idiom or form of a horn. 1828Macaulay Ess. History in Misc. Writ. (1889) 152 Connection..not so close as to destroy the idioms of national opinion and feeling. 1866Geo. Eliot Let. 15 Aug. (1955) IV. 301, I took unspeakable pains in preparing to write Romola—neglecting nothing I could find that would help me to what I may call the ‘Idiom’ of Florence, in the largest sense one could stretch the word to. 1870G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 195, I noticed it [sc. snow]..sketched in intersecting edges bearing ‘idiom’..I have no other word yet for that which takes the eye or mind in a bold hand..not being beauty nor true inscape yet gives interest. 1936R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 46 To form the idiom of her flesh I faceted in clearest thought An arctic crystal in whose mesh Of frosty rays the sun is caught.
5. Comb. Idiom Neutral, an international language based on Volapük, devised chiefly by W. Rosenberger, and first published in English in 1903.
1903W. Rosenberger (title) Idiom neutral. 1907W. J. Clark Internat. Lang. ii. v. 99 The famous linguistic club of Nuremberg is remarkable for having gone through the evolution from Volapük to Idiom Neutral viâ Esperanto. 1922A. L. Guérard Short Hist. Internat. Lang. Movement ii. vi. 137 Idiom Neutral is entirely based on the principle of greatest internationality, at least so far as root-words are concerned. 1949M. Pei Story of Lang. (1952) vi. iii. 443 In 1902 an academy of Volapük experts devised a radical simplification of their tongue, which they rechristened Idiom Neutral. |