| idiolect |
| Definition:
The speech patterns unique to an individual. Note: These speech patterns consist of the diction, idioms, and pronunciations that are unique to any individual; hence, everyone speaks their own idiolect. |
| Etymology: The word was coined by combining the combining form idios (which in Greek means "personal" or "private" in Greek) with the word dialect. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1948: "The totality of the possible utterances of one speaker at one time in using a language to interact with one other speaker is an idiolect." (B. Bloch in Language XXIV. 7 ) |