idiolect
/ˈɪdɪəlɛkt
/noun
The speech habits peculiar to a particular person: in his strange idiolect, he preferred to call angels ‘angelicals’...
- Thus, while idiolects (or the speech of individuals) considered in isolation might seem random, the speech community as a whole behaved regularly.
- So either these preposterous imitations of English have been produced by infiltrators from some parallel universe, or this is one of those little corners of the language where idiolects differ.
- Our register and our idiom intersect to form our idiolects - the various dialects, if you like, that we can all speak.
Origin
1940s: from idio- 'own, personal' + -lect as in dialect.
- disagreeably
- disagreement
- disallow
- disallowance
- disambiguate
- disambiguation
- disamenity
- disannul
- disappear
- disappearance
- disappearing act
- disapplication
- disapply
- disappoint
- disappointed
- disappointedly
- disappointing
- disappointingly
- disappointment
- disapprobation
- disapproval
- disapprove
- disapprover
- disapproving
- disapprovingly