To create a master palette, you need only three colors: red, yellow, blue. Mixing them, we get the so-called intermediate: green, orange and purple. And then what? The farther, the more colors and shades, without which life – black and white film. Here the same thing happens in the language: letters, sounds, syllables, words, phrases, and, of course, the idioms, without which life turns into a black and white silent movie. And English idioms is no exception.
What is the idiom? There is a tall building with lots of corridors and rooms under the name “Language”. We need to get there to knock in one of the classrooms, large enough, called "phraseology". Right here in the study of phraseological units – sustainable, expressive combinations of words, with a single integrated value, and performs one syntactic function.
As an example – idioms the English language with the translation: up one’s length – careless, sloppy, slipshod; in blooming health – “healthy, strong, blood and milk; every inch a king – real, whole, from head to toe and others.
Phraseology – is a treasure house of language, without any exceptions. To see this will help us idioms in the English language, which for centuries absorbed the history of the people, its mentality, culture, life, national peculiarities. They just help to identify the main sources of idioms. Origin of English idioms are divided into two groups: native English and borrowed. The latter, in their turn, are divided into cross-language and intra-language. Here in a particular class are allocated and borrowed idioms in language form.
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From the above we can enumerate the following four categories:
And now details about each of these points.
This is a fairly large group. We can say, a significant part of the idiomatic structure of the English language. Within this type we can distinguish the following subgroups: first, it is a stable combination associated with English realities. For example, to be born within the sound of Bow bells, which means “born in London”, as the literal translation sounds like “to be born under the sound of the bells of the Church of St Mary-Le-bow”. The fact that this is a famous Church located in the heart of the British capital.
Then – idioms, which reflected the customs and traditions of the British. As an example, let's imagine such English idioms with translations: to cut somebody off with a shilling – leave no legacy (if the legacy was left only one shilling, so the act was committed intentionally); to sit above (below) the salt – to hold high (low) level in the social hierarchy (according to old English custom, the salt shaker was set in the center of the table, and the guests were seated according to their social standing: noble – for the upper end of the table, and the poor – for lower).
Not without English superstitions: have kissed the Blarney stone – to be flattering man (according to legend, anyone who kisses the stone in Ireland in the Blarney castle, the hour becomes the owner of the gift of flattering speech).
Huge phraseological heritage of the English language, left behind the Bible and the great William Shakespeare.
The Number of “the Sola Scriptura", or biblical phraseologisms, so great that their list – quite a difficult task. One of the most used in modern English could be considered the following expression: to bear one’s cross – to bear the cross; to kill the fatted calf.” – literally means to slaughter a fat calf (the story of the meeting of the prodigal son), that is, to meet cordially; to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind – sow the wind – and reap the whirlwind, cruel to pay for evil deeds; to sit under one's vine and fig-tree – literally means to sit under his vine and Fig tree, what does it mean to sit at home in peace and security, to be in the home.
Here it should be mentioned that many values of the English phraseological units of biblical origin differ from their book prototypes, due to the reinterpretation of biblical stories over time, as well as omission of some archaisms and changing the order of words.
Another important layer – the ‘experime”, that is, expressions that are associated with the works of Shakespeare. Their total number counts more than one hundred units. For example, midsummer madness – dementia ( play "twelfth night"); salad days – young, green, it's time for the youthful inexperience (the play "Antony and Cleopatra"); to win golden opinions – to excite General admiration (play "Henry IV") and aother.
There are also observed some deviations from the texts of the great playwright: a permutation of words, cutting phrases, replacing one word with another. However, there are instances when a particular word is long obsolete, but retained its original form, the value within “shekspiriana”. A striking example is the turnover from whose bourne no traveler returns – from the realm of death still has not come back, which continues the archaic bourne – boundary, limit.
Classic English literature, you might say, made a huge contribution to the development of the phraseological system of the English language. In addition to Shakespeare, writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Alexander Pope, Walter Scott, John Milton, Charles Dickens and many others enriched the English idiomatic Fund. For example, to catch smb. red-handed (Walter Scott) – to catch, capture at the crime scene; fall on evil days (John Milton) – black days, to languish, to live in poverty; a bag of bones (Charles Dickens) – skin and bone, to be exhausted; man Friday (Defoe) – Friday; faithful servant.
In the same group is observed a considerable number of phraseological units, which are the names of famous and outstanding British: Hobson’s choice – choosing Willy-nilly, forced choice (Robson – the stable owner in Cambridge in the sixteenth-century binding their customers to take the horse, which is closer to the output)
As mentioned above, the borrowed phraseology in the English language a lot, and they also can be divided into subgroups. In the first place are sustainable momentum, once swim across the ocean from US and boldly settled on the coast of Albion. This so-called intra-language borrowing. As a rule, they are associated with artistic works of American writers: the almighty dollar (W. Irving) – ironic statement ‘the Almighty dollar”; the last hurrah (O’Connor) – the Swan song, last hurrah; the last of the Mohicans (F. Cooper) – this level «Russian-English idioms”, as has its counterpart in the Russian language – last of the Mohicans, the last representative of the other.
Then there are the antique drawing – idioms, came into the English language from the pages of ancient authors and myths of Ancient Greece and Rome: achiles's heel – vulnerable spot, an Achilles heel; the apple of discord – the main cause of the feud or quarrel, a bone of contention; the golden age – a time of prosperity, Renaissance, Golden age.
Next, in descending order followed by borrowings from French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Danish, Russian languages: appetite comes with eating (Francois Rabelais) – the appetite comes while eating; blood and iron – literal translation "iron and blood" the value of “the ruthless use of force" (characteristics of the policies of Bismarck, brutally suppress opponents of the unification of the German lands); tilt at windmills (Cervantes) – to fight with windmills; an ugly duckling (H. C. Andersen) – the ugly duckling, outwardly attractive, but on the inside, kind and sympathetic, outwardly not promising, but later opening from an unexpected quarter; the Sick Man of Europe – this statement can be attributed to the category of «Russian idioms in the English language»and it means “the sick man of Europe” (it is attributed to Nicholas I, who had named the Turkey).
Article in other languages:
AR: https://tostpost.com/ar/education/17660-english-idioms-with-examples-and-meanings.html
HI: https://tostpost.com/hi/education/19303-english-idioms-with-examples-and-meanings.html
JA: https://tostpost.com/ja/education/17325-english-idioms-with-examples-and-meanings.html
PT: https://tostpost.com/pt/educa-o/35123-ingl-s-frazeologizmy-com-a-tradu-o-exemplos-e-valores.html
TR: https://tostpost.com/tr/e-itim/30695-ngilizce-diom-eviri-rnekleri-ve-anlamlar.html
ZH: https://tostpost.com/zh/education/3655-english-idioms-with-examples-and-meanings.html
Alin Trodden - author of the article, editor
"Hi, I'm Alin Trodden. I write texts, read books, and look for impressions. And I'm not bad at telling you about it. I am always happy to participate in interesting projects."
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