An idiom dictionary is a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

or phrase book that lists and explains

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

s – distinctive words or phrases having a figurative meaning that goes beyond the original

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

of the words.

Idioms

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning could not be readily deduced from the meaning of its individual words. The word comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''ἰδίωμα'' (idioma) – the distinctive style of a particular person. The traditional example is " kick the bucket" which is normally understood to mean dying. The extent to which a phrase is thought idiomatic is a matter of degree and

native speakers A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

of English consider a phrase like "pop the question" (proposing marriage) to be less idiomatic than "kick the bucket".

Dictionary

An idiom dictionary may be a traditional book or expressed in another medium such as a database within software for

machine translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...

. Examples of the genre include ''

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', sometimes referred to simply as ''Brewer's'', is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions, and figures, whether historical or mythical. The "New Edi ...

'', which explains traditional allusions and proverbs, and ''

Fowler's Modern English Usage ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by H. W. Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage and writing. It covers a wide range of topics that relate to usage, including: plurals, nouns, verbs, punctuation, case ...

'', which was conceived as an idiom dictionary following the completion of the ''

Concise Oxford English Dictionary The ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' (officially titled ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary'' until 2002, and widely abbreviated ''COD'' or ''COED'') is one of the best-known of the 'smaller' Oxford dictionaries. The latest edition contains o ...

'', which itself contained many idioms. Some multilingual dictionaries of idioms are available on-line. One of them i
Babelite
which is freely accessible. The main readership and market for idiom dictionaries are

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

people and learners of

English as a foreign language English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), Engli ...

(EFL). The first major dictionary of idioms in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

was ''A Dictionary of Idioms for the Deaf''; published in 1966 by the

American School for the Deaf American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, ...

. Subsequent editions were published under the more general title of ''A Dictionary of American Idioms''.

Structure

Idioms may vary considerably in their presentation. The keywords may vary – "green fingers" or a "green thumb". The grammar may vary – "turn the tables" or "the tables are turned". A phrase may even be recast completely, just following a pattern – "a few gallons shy of a full tank" or "one sandwich short of a picnic". This variation makes organisation of an idiom dictionary difficult. The idioms may be organised in simple alphabetical order, as in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English''. They may be grouped by keyword, as in the ''Longman Dictionary of English Idioms''. Or they may be grouped by domain so that, for example, all idioms based upon nautical expressions such as "show him the ropes" and "three sheets to the wind" are put together.

Bilingual dictionaries

Bilingual dictionaries have an additional problem when dealing with idioms – as well as explaining the idiom, they also have to translate it. In doing so, they will commonly provide both a

literal translation Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is the translation of a text done by translating each word separately without analysing how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence. In translation theory, anoth ...

and a free translation. For example, the phrase "can be counted on the fingers of one hand", meaning few in number, may translated literally into Chinese as ''qu zhe ke shu'' and, more sensibly, as ''liao liao wu ji'' (only a handful).

Idioms

Dictionary

Structure

Bilingual dictionaries

See also