different between idiom vs snowclone

For Wiktionary's handling of idioms, see Wiktionary:Idioms

English

Etymology

From Middle French idiome, and its source, Late Latin idioma, from Ancient Greek ?????? (idí?ma, “a peculiarity, property, a peculiar phraseology, idiom”), from ????????? (idioûsthai, “to make one's own, appropriate to oneself”), from ????? (ídios, “one's own, pertaining to oneself, private, personal, peculiar, separate”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??d??m/

Noun

idiom (countable and uncountable, plural idioms or idiomata)

1. A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, person, or group of people.

   Synonyms: idiomaticness, idiomaticity

2. A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context etc.
   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, "The Other L-Word", Vanity Fair, 13 Jan 2010:

     Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of "like" has spread through the idiom of the young.

3. An established expression whose meaning may not be not deducible from the literal meanings of its component words, often peculiar to a given language.
   • 2008, Patricia Hampl, “You’re History”, in Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May (editors), Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life, Minnesota Historical Society, ?ISBN, page 134:

     You’re history, we say […] . Surely it is an American idiom. Impossible to imagine a postwar European saying, “You’re history. . . . That’s history,” meaning fuhgeddaboudit, pal.

4. An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style.

5. (programming) A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.

Synonyms

• (language variety): dialect (loosely), language (loosely), languoid, lect, vernacular (loosely)
• (phrase): expression (loosely), form of words (loosely), idiotism, locution (loosely), phrase (loosely)

Derived terms

Related terms

• idiolect
• idiosyncratic
• idiot

Translations

See also

• Category:Idioms by language

Further reading

• American idioms - a comprehensive list of idioms, browsable through alphabetical links. Includes parts of speech, definitions and example sentences.
• English and American Idioms - RSS subscription channel
• Glossary of Linguistics
• Today's English Idioms at GoEnglish.com

• idiom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• idiom in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• imido, imido-, modii

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??d?jom]
• Hyphenation: idiom

Noun

idiom m inan

1. idiom (established expression whose meaning is not deducible from the literal meanings of its component words)
   • 1972, Nový orient:

     P?ed b?žným „Nashledanou", které Peršané vyjad?ují slovy „nech? je B?h vaším opatrovníkem", dáme p?ednost idiomu „vaše laskavost nebo pozornost je (byla) nesmírná" nebo „nech? se vysoká laskavost nezmenší" ...

   • 1985, Studie a práce linguistické:

     Stejn? málo významné byly pro IF pokusy p?iblížit význam idiom? ve vágních pojmech p?enesenosti, obraznosti, pr?hlednosti apod.

   • 1996, ?asopis pro moderní filologii:

     Trochu konzervativní ?eský uživatel Schemannova slovníku bude možná zpo?átku postrádat u n?kterých idiom? jejich vysv?tlení, jak byl zvyklý kup?íkladu z dosud (do r. 1993) nejobsažn?jšího slovníku tohoto typu ...

   • 2005, Zden?k St?íbrný, Proud ?asu:

     Vyjád?il to p?kným anglickým idiomem „They have added insult to your injury“.

   • 2014, František ?ermák, Jazyk a slovník. Vybrané lingvistické studie:

     U idiom? pak m?žeme postulovat existenci p?edevším po?etných sekundárních symbol? (otev?ená hlava), pop?. ikon? (kamenný obli?ej), mén? ?asto však už sekundárních index? (co do, kór když).

Declension

Further reading

• idiom in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• idiom in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989
• idiom in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz
• idiom in Nový encyklopedický slovník ?eštiny, czechency.org
• ?eská frazeologie, Naše ?e? (1984)

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch idioom.

Noun

idiom (first-person possessive idiomku, second-person possessive idiommu, third-person possessive idiomnya)

1. idiom (idiomatic expression)
2. idiom (artistic style)
3. (rare, dated) idiom (language or language variety)

Further reading

• “idiom” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?id.j?m/

Noun

idiom m inan

1. idiom (idiomatic expression)
2. idiom (artistic style)
3. (rare, dated) idiom (language or language variety)

Declension

Romanian

Etymology

From French idiome

Noun

idiom n (plural idiomuri)

1. idiom

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /id?o?m/
• Hyphenation: i?di?om

Noun

idì?m m (Cyrillic spelling ??????)

1. idiom (idiomatic expression)
2. idiom (artistic style)
3. (linguistics) idiom (language or language variety)

Declension

English

Etymology

Blend of snow cone +? clone, after the popular idea that the Inuit have a large number of words for different types of snow; coined by Glen Whitman in response to Geoffrey Pullum on the blog Language Log.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sn??.kl??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?sno?.klo?n/

Noun

snowclone (plural snowclones)

1. A type of cliché which uses an old idiom formulaically placed in a new context.

   "To fry or not to fry" is a snowclone of the famous quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To be or not to be".

   • 2005 Nov 5, auuV, "Some articles that I like. They are about language," alt.running.out.of.newsgroup.names, Usenet

     I stumbled upon the site the other day, when I was looking up the origins of the "Im not an X, but I play one on TV" snowclone.

   • 2005 December 3, David Rowan, "Trendsurfing: 'Snowclone' journalism" [1], The Times

     Suddenly snowclone hunters were documenting media usages suggesting that, in space, no one can hear you belch, bitch, blog, speak, squeak or suck.

   • 2006 Jun 20, Michael Erard, "Analyzing Eggcorns and Snowclones, and Challenging Strunk and White", in The New York Times, page F4

     Regular readers learned there first about snowclones, the basic building blocks of cliches, like "X is the new Y" or "you don't need a degree in A to do B."

   • 2006 Jul, Mark Peters, "Not Your Father's Cliché", in Columbia Journalism Review 45(2), page 14

     If so, you're being snowed under by snowclones — a category of fill-in-the-blank cliché identified by linguists.

   • 2006 Nov 18, unknown author, "Snowclone", in New Scientist 192(2578), page 80

     When you read phrases like these in a newspaper, you've stumbled across a particular type of cliché: the snowclone.

Related terms

• catchphrase
• cliché
• meme
• proverb

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English snowclones

References

• 2004 January 16, Geoffrey Pullum, “Snowclones: lexicographical dating to the second”, Language Log

Further reading

• snowclone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia