Many
people struggle with grasping these two concepts. Idioms and clichés are
two different things. While idioms
can be clichés and clichés can be
idioms, they must be kept separate.
So,
what is the difference between an idiom and a cliché?
An idiom is
an expression. Its meaning is not predictable from the usual grammatical rules
of a language or from the usual meanings of the expression's constituent
elements. Example, the expression kick
the bucket meaning “to die”
has nothing to do with kicking or buckets. However, the entire expression has a
set meaning that is familiar to most people. Idioms can be analysed with regards
to how idiomatic they are, and there is not necessarily agreement about whether
or not something is an idiom. The word “idiom” is usually positive, and people
use “idiom” to refer to expressions that they approve of but that are otherwise
problematic.
A cliché is a word or phrase that
has been overused to the point of having lost its freshness or vigour. It can
be a fashionable phrase (“at the end of the day...”), a proverb (“don't count
your chickens...”), a simile (“strong as an ox”), or a single word (“Whatever.”).
The word cliché is almost
always pejorative, and people are told to avoid them (“Avoid clichés like the
plague,” as one self-referential joke has it).
An
idiom can be a cliché. In fact, it’s likely that many idioms will be somewhat
clichéd. However, it does not have to be; and clichés are by no means always
idioms.
For
clichés, on the one hand, to overuse
that expression, one should try to avoid hackneyed language.
Idioms that are not clichés will rarely
bother anyone, as long as the meaning of the idiom is not ambiguous.
