|
|
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 21
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 21 |
Consider the term(s) idiotism. It can mean a peculiarity of phrase, or idiom. Or it can mean the condition of lacking intellect, or idiocy. Certainly these are widely disparate senses; and each stems from a unique Greek root. But they do share the element "common", in the pejorative sense.
edit: According to the OED, in the 16th C., instances of the word idiot are found with initial n, transferred from an; nidiot was further popularly corrupted to nidget; cf. the modern vulgar pronunciation, sometimes graphically represented as idget.
the Contrarian
the Contrarian
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
So if a nidiot never leaves home, he's nidicolous?  And, thanks--I have wondered how the term idgit (or however it's spelled) derived from idiot. Um--in your first sense, how come the word isn't idiomism?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Jackie, I'm not sure of this, but it seems that if you get down to specifics, idiom is the form of expression, and idiotism is the manner of expression.
"So what's the difference between form and manner," is heard from the back of the room.
FWIW (a cheap laugh?), the French form of both idiotisms is idiotisme
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
So--when I say 'you-all' or 'your-all's', I am ...doing? using? committing?...an idiotism here, because I'm the only one who does it, right? However, were any of you-all to visit 'most anywhere around where I live, you'd hear one or the other everywhere you went.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
I would call this "idiom", jackie. ANd it reminds me of something my sister told me - she was in a restaurant in Kentucky with a group of friends, and one of the friends remarked to the waiter, "I can hardly understand your accent". Whereupon the waiter smiled and replied "Honey, down here I'm not the one with the accent."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
 I'd call it idiom, too, but. P.S.--See? 'Bout everybody in the South calls people by pet names; so if any of you have thought I was gettin' a mite too familiar--well, it's just SOP.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Note to self: Jackie's not being familiar, just soppy
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I don't get it... what's it stand for?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
Standard Operating Procedure.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385 |
just soppy
re "What does it stand for?"
Standard Operating Procedure Poops Yet-again.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,334
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
729
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
