Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

idiomatology

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: id-ioma-tol-o-gy
IPA

19

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

5

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The study of idioms and idiomatic language

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Mr. Alan Gardiner's Home Thoughts on Language emboldens one to ask whether there is not room for a science of Idiomatology* as a sister to Semantics."
"His aim is language characterization as to its system, a kind of idiomatology."
"If we were to identify the langue strictly with the object of linguistic description then one aspect of the problem of defining the langue would involve drawing the line between that aspect of the speakers’ knowledge of X which is relevant to a linguistic description of X and those aspects (the idiomatology) which are not."

Etymology

From idiomatic + -ology. Contemporary use is traced to George W. Grace in the unpublished 1977 paper "Language: An Ethnolinguistic Essay". However, the term had been coined at least twice previously in the same sense.

Word Breakdown

Suffix: idiomatic

Usage

Uncountable

Questions

What does idiomatology mean?: The study of idioms and idiomatic language
Where does idiomatology come from?: From idiomatic + -ology. Contemporary use is traced to George W. Grace in the unpublished 1977 paper "Language: An Ethnolinguistic Essay". However, the term had been coined at least twice previously in the same sense.

How to pronounce idiomatology

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