andidiomatic

Andidiomatic is an adjective used to describe language or text that does not conform to conventional idiomatic expressions. It characterizes speech that is literal, explicit, or paraphrastic rather than figurative or culturally bound by common idioms.

Etymology and status: The word is a recent neologism, formed by combining a negating notion with idiomatic. It is not part of standard dictionaries and appears mainly in linguistic, translation, and natural language generation discussions as a descriptive label rather than a prescriptive category.

Usage: In linguistic analysis and translation studies, andidiomatic writing may be produced intentionally to preserve literal meaning, improve cross-cultural comprehension, or test a model’s handling of figurative language. It is also used to describe non-native or machine-generated text that avoids idioms. The term contrasts with idiomatic language, which relies on established phrases that may have non-literal interpretations.

Examples: An andidiomatic sentence avoids idioms: “She decided to take action and address the problem directly.” Compare with idiomatic “She decided to bite the bullet and tackle the issue.” In translation, rendering “It’s raining cats and dogs” as “There is heavy rain” is more literal and andidiomatic, focusing on meaning over figurative expression.

See also: Idiom, Idiomatic expression, Literal language, Non-idiomatic text.