idiomatology

English edit

Etymology edit

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 Contemporary use is traced to George W. Grace in the unpublished 1977 paper "Language: An Ethnolinguistic Essay".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.

Noun edit

idiomatology (uncountable)

The study of idioms and idiomatic language
- 1919, H.A. Rose, “Comparative "Idiomatology"”, in Man‎^[1], page 133:
  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.
- 1952, Claire Eileen Craddock, Style theories as found in stylistic studies of Romance scholars, 1900-1950‎^[2], page 32:
  His aim is language characterization as to its system, a kind of idiomatology.
- 1978 June 9, George W. Grace, “The Langue”, in Ethnolinguistic Notes‎^[3], number 2:
  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.