Idiom Origins

<p>An <strong>idiom</strong> is a <a title="Phrase" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase">phrase</a> or expression that typically presents a <a title= "Literal and figurative language" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_and_figurative_language">figurative</a>, non-literal <a class="mw-redirect" title= "Meaning (linguistic)" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistic)">meaning</a> attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as <a class="mw-redirect" title="Formulaic speech" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formulaic_speech">formulaic language</a>, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the <a title="Literal and figurative language" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_and_figurative_language">literal</a> meaning.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> Idioms occur frequently in all languages; in <a title= "English language" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language">English</a> alone there are an estimated twenty-five million idiomatic expressions.</p>