Anyone have/had a book on idioms?

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Do you/did you carry it around with you?


I have a book on idioms I bought at the folk shop when I was 18. I used to carry it around with me and keep it with me at all times and anything people say that didn't make sense. I'd look it up to see if it was in there. Sometimes it was. My English teacher saw me with it and said "That's a good book for you." I think she knew I took things literal and then she saw me with that book so she said that. I thought it was fun seeing all these idioms and it made me wondered, gosh if even normal kids don't understand idioms if they have never heard them before, why make it an aspie trait? It's obvious even young kids have this difficulty or else there wouldn't be a whole dictionary on idioms. This book was aimed for kids because it was published by Scholastic. There is another book on idioms out there and it's aimed for aspies.

I have Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable that I bought after someone mentioned it on WP. I don't have problems with idioms, I just like to read about their history. It's about 31/2 inches thick so I don't carry it around.

I have wondered this myself. I think the difference is being able to tell if this odd phrase is supposed to be some kind of idiom, or if it should be taken literally. I guess normal kids can tell its not supposed to be taken literally, and thus is supposed to be an idiom, and perhaps can even tell or guess the meaning of it from context?

Some people get the meaning of idioms wrong. For example "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" People may think it has to do with the Trojan Horse and get the wrong idea from it. Thats where such a book would help normal kids.

I think idioms are kinda dumb, at least until I learn of its history. Then it makes sense. But once learned, I don't think aspies would have any difficulty. Its just a matter of recognizing that a certain sequence of words means something different than the words that make it up would initially suggest.

I'd love this idea, particularly for regional sayings. When I visited my husband's family for the first time in the South, my SIL often used the expression "I'm not bothered by [xxx]". I thought she meant that whatever it was didn't actually bother (irritate) her. I found out years later that the expression meant she didn't like [xxx].

My son is an aspie, and has no trouble with idioms. Well, no more trouble than anyone else. I'm not sure if I'm AS or not, but I used to have trouble with "a stitch in time saves nine." I knew it meant that if something is a little bit broken, you should fix it before the problem gets much worse. (And I knew that because of the context in which it was said.) But the sentence didn't make sense to me, because I thought "a stitch in time" was like "a wrinkle in time" as in the Madeleine L'Engel books. What would inter-dimensional travel have to do with fixing things? And how do you "save nine"? Nine what? Save it from what?

I love idioms! I've had several books on them and was completely fascinated by French idioms when I took 3rd year French. idioms are strange and wonderful.

I have a dictionary of idioms that I have used in the past when I taught high school English. I have used this as part of a classroom game. Now that I am the school's gifted intervention specialist, I haven't played this game in awhile. I may have to try it out on the gifted students.

I have a Brewers Dictionary of Phrase And Fable if I want look up origin of a particular
expression. As for slang I sometimes consult an online source.

ROFL, you know, I had almost the exact same thought, except that it made sense to me. Like that if you could go back and fix something you did wrong, you wouldn't have to deal with the mess from the mistake. Okay, maybe that doesn't actually make total sense, but I'm used to things not making sense, so I kinda mentally gloss over small bits of nonsense.

i have a couple idioms based on other idioms that i like to use:

"there are none so chained as those that think they're free"

and

"in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is largely ignored".

I have few books on English idioms since I was fascinated with them