English Idioms and Customs.docVIP

English Idioms and Customs 　　Abstract： Customs is a kind of social phenomenon. They are not the product of individuals but that of the collective in the society， which are affected by politics， economy， religion， literary art and so on and then affect those things in reverse. English idioms are greatly influenced by English customs. 　　Keywords： Idioms custom religion society 　　As we all know： Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if we know the meaning of every word you see or hear， we may not understand the idiom because we dont understand the culture behind it. As a special part of culture， language， especially idioms， inevitably reflects the customs of the nationality. Now I will discuss them in greater details in the following aspects： 　　1. English Idioms Influenced by Diet Habits 　　English idioms related to some food 　　The dietary habits of a nation have a very close relationship with its geographical environment and lifestyle， they are indirectly related with the language， especially with the idioms. Bread， butter， jam and cheese are some food eaten in English families and there are many idioms originated from them. Here are some examples： 　　（1） baker’s dozen 　　At the first sight of the idiom， we may think it means “baker’s twelve” because “dozen” refers to “12” as a cardinal number. However， the real meaning is quite different from what we think. 　　It was first used in Britain in the 1400s. At that time， the government imposed very strict rules on the weight of all kinds of bread. However， at that time， it was not so easy to ensure the exact weight of the bread. To avoid punishment on the lack of weight， bakers often gave customers one more bun for free. In this way， “baker’s dozen” later got the meaning of “thirteen” instead of “twelve”. Later， more people began to use this idiom for they had to buy buns almost every day. The reason for its popularity also lies in that British people think the number of “1