CaoimhínSF wrote:
And the French term for it is idiotisme (not sure how the English version was derived), which carries with it the idea that it is something not normal (or perhaps not "logical"), but which of course a native speaker understands.
The relationship between "idiot" and "idiom" goes back to Ancient Greek, according to etymonline.com (
idiom,
idiot), and it's the same "idio" as "idiosynchratic", meaning particular to the individual. (Just as well I checked, actually -- for years people told me that "idiom" was from the Ancient Greek for "language", and I nearly repeated that here.)
The French "idiotisme" is probably pretty recent (I don't know of a French equivalent to etymonline), as part of France's demonisation of common speech and regional variations.