Idiom

Hola Friends,

One of the many things that I would like to send across to you are idioms that are in common and not so common usage. But before that a quick word on what idioms are… idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words e. g. over the moon, see the light.

An idiom also means a form of expression natural to a language, person, or group of people: e.g. he had a feeling for phrase and idiom.
The third meaning of the word is the dialect of a people or part of a country.
It could also mean a characteristic mode of expression in music or art: e.g. they were both working in a neo-Impressionist idiom.

The root word of idiom is idios
Idios in Greek means own or private

From this root word originate various other words like:
Idiolatry:
Self-worship; excessive self-esteem.

Idiolect:
The speech habits peculiar to a particular person

Idiopathic:
Relating to or denoting any disease or condition which arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown.

Idiosyncrasy:
A characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual.
It also means a peculiarity of the physical or the mental constitution, esp. susceptibility toward drugs, food, etc.

Idioglossia:
A private form of speech invented by one child or by children who are in close contact, as twins.
It can also mean a pathological condition characterized by speech so distorted as to be unintelligible.

And of course the word Idiot also comes from this. How could I forget that? ;-)
I don’t think I need tell you what it means but the origin is someone who is a private person or a layman. And why is he a private person? Because he does not have the skill or the expertise to be in public life. It might have also evolved as an analogy to the Greek word stratiotes which means a professional soldier so probably an idiotes would be a personal soldier who is not good enough to join the professional army.

Until tomorrow,

Ciao