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An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
For example, the Arabic phrase في نفس المركب (fi nafs al-markeb) is translated as "in the same boat", and it carries the same figurative meaning as the equivalent idiom in English. Another example would be the Japanese yojijukugo 一石二鳥 (isseki ni chō), which is translated as "one stone, two birds". This is, of course ...
The expression " the elephant in the room " (or " the elephant in the living room ") [ 2 ][ 3 ] is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is ...
The saying is typically used when someone is rushing into something. "Cool your jets" is an essentially identical idiom. However it also has a more literal meaning and in certain circumstances is the preferred idiom to use. "Hold your horses" literally means to keep your horse (s) still, not to be confused with holding them in a stable. Someone ...
Bob's your uncle. Early appearance of "Bob's your uncle" in print, an advertisement in the Dundee Evening Telegraph on 19 June 1924. " Bob's your uncle " is a phrase commonly used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries that means "and there it is", or "and there you have it", or "it's done". Typically, someone says it to conclude a ...
Idiom, also called idiomaticness or idiomaticity, is the syntactical, grammatical, or structural form peculiar to a language. [1] Idiom is the realized structure of a language, as opposed to possible but unrealized structures that could have developed to serve the same semantic functions but did not. The grammar of a language (its morphology ...
The earliest record of this phrase is in 1512, in Narrenbeschwörung (Appeal to Fools) by Thomas Murner, which includes a woodcut illustration showing a woman tossing a baby out with waste water. It is a common catchphrase in German, with examples of its use in work by Martin Luther , Johannes Kepler , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Otto von ...
Meaning. John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara took a piglet with him on board an aeroplane in 1909. "When pigs fly" is an adynaton, a way of saying that something will never happen. The phrase is often used for humorous effect, to scoff at over-ambition. There are numerous variations on the theme; when an individual with a reputation ...