different between language vs idiom

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?ng?gw?j, IPA^(key): /?læ??w?d??/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [?le???w?d??]
• Hyphenation: lan?guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn???wéh?s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ?eþ?ode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ?ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. (countable, uncountable, figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor ?ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages ?ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • ? English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lan??ad???/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• ? Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • ? English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• ? Old Spanish: lenguage

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