colloquialism
(kəˈləʊkwɪəlɪz(ə)m)
[see -ism.]
1. Colloquial quality or style, esp. of language.
| 1818 Coleridge Lit. Rem. (1836) I. 237 Their language is..an actual transcript of the colloquialism of the day. 1846 Poe M.E. Hewitt, Wks. 1864 III. 117 [The] colloquialism without vulgarity, of its expression. 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 343 Style..sometimes condescending to the humblest colloquialism. |
2. A form of speech or phrase proper to, or characteristic of, ordinary conversation; a colloquial expression.
| 1810 Let. in Polwhele Trad. & Recoll. (1826) II. 635 The frequent mixture in some translations of mere colloquialisms. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes xxx. 298 The slang and colloquialisms with which we garnish..our conversation. 1881 R. Routledge Science xiii. 325 The electric shock became, in fact..to use a colloquialism, all the rage. |