Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook (2 page)

DEDICATION

For Laurann and Saundri, Jess, and Bret

PART I

INTRODUCTION

In this part, you learn the basics about idioms: what they are, what they’re not, and why they exist. This part also gives you a guide for the rest of the book.

CHAPTER 1

AN INTRODUCTION TO IDIOMS

American English is a rich and ever-changing tapestry. And like most languages, much of its vivid color, texture, and flexibility comes from the rich storehouse of idioms.

American English, like most languages, is filled with idioms and idiomatic expressions. There are over 10,000 idioms in American English, and some of them have been in use for more than 2,000 years, while others are brand new. Idioms are what give language much of its fluid nature: New expressions appear and go out of fashion, street slang becomes popularized by music or film and gains more formal status, new technology brings a wave of fresh jargon, older expressions evolve to new meaning or usage.

Idioms are a major component of American speech patterns and are abundant in everyday chat as well as formal conversation and all forms of writing. There are idioms for nearly every occasion, life situation, and human activity and emotion — birth, death, work, play, success, failure, love, time, money, and so on. In fact, some conversations consist entirely of idioms!

How has American English become such an idiom-rich language? Idioms and expressive language thrive in part because American society is a mobile society. Wherever people move, they bring along their regional and colloquial expressions. Widespread access to mass media, television, radio, film, and more recently the Internet all provide a swift avenue for new jargon and slang that’s on the street one day and on everyone’s lips the next. America’s relatively open society and lax social controls on language help keep idiomatic speech alive and open to experimentation, while America’s admiration for individuality and industriousness provides the perfect environment for new and creative language to flourish.

The survival of ancient idioms in today’s speech and the enormous scope and variety of idioms in American English suggest that idiomatic language may serve some important function in society. At the very least, people use idioms and expressive language simply to find fresh, vivid, humorous, or cutting ways to say what they want to say. Certain jargon and specialized ways of speaking may be a way of preserving one’s identity, or providing a sense of belonging and familiarity among the speakers. Also, casual or familiar speech can reduce tension in a difficult situation. And perhaps it’s simply human nature to play with language, shape it to one’s use, and take advantage of the full range of expression that a language allows.

People use idioms to make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but saying more. For example, the expression
it runs in the family
is shorter and more succinct than saying that a physical or personality trait “is fairly common throughout one’s extended family and over a number of generations.” The expression
a nine-to-five job
communicates much more than simply the hours one works. It says that the job is ordinary, unchanging, and perhaps boring or humdrum (the same every day).

Having a solid working knowledge of idiomatic language is essential to understanding and interacting in American English. But learning idioms and using them correctly is often the most formidable and daunting task for language learners. Equally, language instructors preparing to teach idioms often wonder where and how to begin.
Webster’s New World American Idioms Handbook
is designed to give language learners, instructors, and others interested in language study a framework and organizational tool (and enjoyable guidebook) for studying and teaching the vast and varied lexicon of American idioms.

Each of the four main parts of this book presents idioms in a slightly different format to accommodate differences in learning, teaching, and language acquisition styles — and to offer a variety of choices for studying idioms. Idioms are arranged into categories by theme, key word, or concept. The chapters and the segments within chapters are arranged in logical “bite-sized” portions, so that any one segment can be read and understood as an independent unit. One goal of this design is to help reduce the sense of intimidation that people often have about learning idioms. It also provides a coherent layout that allows the reader to locate idioms easily, compare related idioms, and to use the book as a reference, a text, or a handbook for studying idioms and English or to just read for enjoyment and interest.

What Is an Idiom?

What is an idiom? Even many native English speakers aren’t clear what constitutes an idiom — they simply use them. Some people are more familiar with the meaning of
idiom
as a style or genre of thought and artistic expression. Among various dictionary sources, there is some disagreement and confusion about how to define an idiom. That’s understandable, considering the fluid nature of so many words and phrases in American English.

One common, basic definition for an idiom is:
two or more words together that, as a unit, have a special meaning that is different from the literal meaning of the words separately.

For example, the idiom
stand out
does not mean to stand or to be outside; it means to be prominent, obvious; to be easily noticed because of a unique or different feature.

This definition of an idiom is a good starting point, but it’s not enough to include all of the words that American English speakers use idiomatically. For example, not all idioms consist of two words; some are only one word, like
scratch
meaning money. Other idioms, like
close down,
are almost literal but they stretch or extend the literal meaning.
Close down
does, in fact, mean to close something, but it generally implies to close or quit a business permanently.

Considering all of the words, constructions, and expressions that are used idiomatically in American English, idioms might best be defined as having one or more of the following characteristics:

• Idioms have a meaning that is different from or extends the literal meaning of the individual word or words.
  
• Idioms break or stretch the rules of grammar, word order (syntax), and semantics to a certain degree.
  
• Idioms change meaning when translated word for word into another language.
  

Other terms that are often used interchangeably with
idiom
are
slang, jargon, colloquialism, expression,
and
saying,
to name some. Going back to the
Webster’s New World Dictionary
, many of these terms have similar or overlapping definitions, but following are the definitions that most distinguish one term from the other:

• slang:
  highly informal speech that is outside standard or conventional usage
  
• jargon:
  specialized vocabulary and idioms used in the same profession, work, or group
  
• colloquialism:
  casual local or regional expressions
  
• expression:
  a particular word, phrase, or sentence that is idiomatic
  
• saying:
  an expression of wisdom and truth
  

In this handbook, the term
idiom
is used throughout, the term
slang
is used occasionally to refer to very informal words and phrases, and
expression
is used for longer idiomatic phrases, except for those that offer words of truth or wisdom, which are referred to as
sayings.

The Idioms in This Book

The idioms included in this book represent a range of language that is used idiomatically, from long-established expressions to some fresh new slang; from pure idiomatic phrases to ones that just slightly stretch the literal meaning; and from common verbs to colorful greetings, warnings, curses, and praises.

Some idioms included in this book, like
in-law
(the blood relatives of one’s spouse) and
clean off
(remove everything from or clean the top surface of something) may not appear to be true idioms, but they are unconventional in a way that is unfamiliar or confusing to language learners.

For example, the expression
in-law
doesn’t follow a normal grammatical pattern.
In-law
looks similar to the expressions
in business
and
in medicine,
both of which refer to a person’s occupation, but
in-law
doesn’t refer to practicing law or being a lawyer. Neither
in-law
nor
clean off
have an exact literal translation.

The idiom
clean off
certainly means to clean, but specifically to clean and clear the surface of something. The preposition,
off,
adds a new dimension to the very common word
clean.
It can become mind-boggling for a language learner to sort out the subtle difference in meaning between expressions like
clean off, clean up, clean out,
and simply
clean.
So this book includes idioms of this type.

Using This Handbook

You may begin wherever you like. It is not necessary to read the chapters in order. You can turn to any page randomly and read about idioms.

Here are some terms and conventions used in this book:

The glossary of grammatical terms in the back of the book gives a clear and concise explanation of terms used in this book. An extensive index provides quick access to individual idioms so that you can find them easily. You can use this index to look for a specific idiom that you’ve heard; you can check out groupings of idioms that begin with the same word; or simply browse this index for fun and interest.

Idioms take time, patience, and practice to master, but you can speed your mastery in a number of ways. You will acquire idioms much faster if you are using them in your conversations and writing. Decide to learn and use one idiom (or more) every day. Join, or create, a study group that meets regularly to speak English and study idioms. You can use this book to help you choose study topics or specific idioms to discuss.

Film and videos are filled with idioms. Choose a film with one of the themes featured in this book (money, romance, family, education) and listen for idioms that you’ve read about in the corresponding chapter. Invite a co-worker to lunch. Attend lectures, poetry readings, museum tours, anything that will allow you to hear normal speech and conversation. You can improve your skills and learn lots of idioms by volunteering at a non-profit agency or school. If you have time, it’s a great way to hear casual conversation, practice English, and help out, too. And following are a few other suggestions — some fun and useful ways that you can use this handbook:

• Choose a theme or chapter that interests you, and then select a small group of idioms under one of the subheadings in the chapter. After you’ve studied about them, teach them to someone else.
  
• Use a newspaper to locate idioms (the comics page can be a good source, as can a movie review).
  
• Check cereal boxes, or other product containers and any kinds of ads. Advertisements are full of idioms. Then find the idiom in this book.
  
• Write love letters (or talk to someone you love) using idioms from Chapter 8. Plan a date with idioms from Chapter 7.
  
• Discuss your future with idioms from Chapter 12.
  
• Keep a list of the idioms that you encounter, and then find them in this book, using the index. Study them and check them. In time you will see how your list of learned and checked idioms begins to grow.
  
• Choose one or two idioms or phrasal verbs per day that you will practice in conversation. If an opportunity to use your idioms doesn’t occur naturally, ask someone to listen to and correct your use of the idioms. That will probably get you talking more about idioms.
  
• Open this book to the index and check off idioms that your hear while watching TV or a video. Then study the idioms that you heard.
  
• Open the book randomly to any page, close your eyes, and point to an idiom. Then learn it.
  

This handbook is bursting with idioms of every type, and includes as many of the most commonly used idioms as could be packed between the pages. Still, this represents just one small portion of the huge lexicon of American idioms, idiomatic expressions, and slang. So feel free to add more whenever you discover a new one that isn’t featured here. Jot them in the margins, the blank pages, in a related chapter, wherever you like. There are plenty to add.

Finally, and most importantly, use
Webster’s New World American Idioms Handbook
in any way that suits your purpose and interest. And enjoy the lively, colorful, adventure of communicating with idioms!