“Kick the bucket”, “take the cake,” “chew the fat,” and “pull someone’s leg.” These are just some of the idiomatic expressions that we use in our daily lives. The question is, why do we use these expressions instead of stating what we really mean directly? Turns out, “there’s still something about [these expressions], and others like [them].”
Idiomatic expressions may well be old and shabby language, but they are our own speech, from the Greek idios, “one’s own.” Fossilized idiomatic language, like the newest of new slang in an exclusive subculture, has a special power to draw two people together in a kind of linguistic intimacy, to express intensities of thought and feeling about their uncertain and sometimes unjust worlds, when the literal meaning of things just doesn’t cut it.
Check out JSTOR Daily’s article and learn more about idioms.
(Image Credit: Pixabay)