
The English word
idiom was itself derived from the
Greek “ἰδίωμα" (idioma), which can be variously translated as
peculiarity,
property, or peculiar
phraseology. Hence the
word has come to be used to describe the form of
speech peculiar to a
people or country and, in a narrower sense, to the forms peculiar to a limited
district, group of people, or even the
technical vocabulary peculiar to a
profession such as
medicine, the
law or any of the
sciences. This narrower sense is also described by the
word dialect (Gr. διάλεκτος), also of Greek
origin. In philosophical terms idiom is a
collection of different
parts (words) forming an entity (
holotes) with a meaning different from its parts.