idiomatology means the study of idioms and idiomatic language. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “idiomatology” is a great word
IDIOMATOLOGY — [Noun] The specialized linguistic study of idioms and the principles governing idiomatic language. From idiomatic (relating to idioms) + -ology (denoting a subject of study). The term in its contemporary linguistic sense is traced to George W. Grace in 1977, though it had been coined at least twice previously in the same sense, with an earlier recorded use in 1673. Unlike phraseology, which surveys the general stylistic terrain of phrases, or lexicology, which maps the broad continent of words, idiomatology is the meticulous spelunking into language's deepest, most illogical caves. It is the careful unknotting of why we 'kick the bucket' to die, the tracking of a semantic fossil in 'spill the beans,' and the forensic accounting of why 'by and large' sails on while other conjunctions founder—a quiet testament to the fact that our most vivid truths are often encased in collective nonsense.
noun
- The study of idioms and idiomatic language“Mr. Alan Gardiner's Home Thoughts on Language emboldens one to ask whether there is not room for a science of Idiomatology* as a sister to Semantics.”