[see -ISM.]
1. Colloquial quality or style, esp. of language.
1818. Coleridge, Lit. Rem. (1836), I. 237. Their language is … an actual transcript of the colloquialism of the day.
1846. Poe, M. E. Hewitt, Wks. 1864, III. 117. [The] colloquialism without vulgarity, of its expression.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 343. The power of style … sometimes condescending to the humblest colloquialism.
2. A form of speech or phrase proper to, or characteristic of, ordinary conversation; a colloquial expression.
1810. Lett., in Polwhele, Trad. & Recoll. (1826), II. 635. The frequent mixture in some translations of mere colloquialisms.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxx. 298. The slang and colloquialisms with which we garnish … our conversation.
1881. Routledge, Science, xii. 325. The electric shock became, in fact … to use a colloquialism, all the rage.
