How did idioms get created and who created them?

Answer 1

Who creates idioms? That's pretty hard to answer. We can go back and see when the first appearance happens in print but newspaper and magazine writers aren't known for creating new words but rather mirroring an existing sentiment in the readership. In other words, no one would know what the idiom means unless the public already had exposure to its meaning. Idoms are created by storytellers, cultural groups and stakeholders of interests, clubs, religions etc, etc. On how an idiom gets created let's look at the idiom, Let's get down to brass tacks. When we look back and see how bolts of cloth, canvas and wire were sold in hardware stores we see that a length of rope was just that, the length between the owner's hands. Since these lengths were not uniform an owner or several owners put down markers such as tacks to measure yards, feet and inches. The first occurrence in the local paper talks about getting down to tacks, finally brass tacks. Obviously a saying that occurred in that locality centered around the one place most people would frequent, the hardware store. It caught on and came to mean getting all the facts or to flesh out many details. This is the way an idiom is created but it is the public that has to accept it before it goes into common use.