Why are idioms used?
Idioms are not only used, they are used a lot. Almost every English person uses several idioms in the course of a conversation. Sometimes an idiom is used as a short way of expressing a more complicated idea. For example if you call something a parson’s egg this is a quick way of saying that there are good parts and bad parts to something, but overall it is not satisfactory. Also idioms help to make English a more colourful language. If you say ‘learning a language is an uphill task’, anyone who has walked or ridden a bicycle up a steep hill will immediately understand the effort involved, because idioms sometimes bring a clear mental picture to mind. Say that something is a drop in the ocean and your listener knows at once that this is a very tiny amount indeed. Where do idioms come from? Idioms often come from jargon the technical language used by a group of specialists. For example soldiers have given us overshoot for ‘to go past the target’ and a ‘last ditch effort’ for a final try
