locution(n = noun.communication) expression, saying - a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations; "pardon the expression"
is a kind of language, oral communication, speech, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, voice communication
has particulars: beatitude, logion, calque, calque formation, loan translation, advice and consent, ambiguity, euphemism, dysphemism, shucks, tongue twister, anatomical, anatomical reference, southernism, catchword, motto, shibboleth, slogan, axiom, maxim, epigram, quip, adage, byword, proverb, saw, idiom, idiomatic expression, phrasal idiom, phrase, set phrase, agrapha, sumpsimus
Speech or discourse; a phrase; a form or mode of expression. G. Eliot. [1913 Webster]
"I hate these figures in locution,
These about phrases forced by ceremony." [1913 Webster]
locution, n.
1 a word or phrase, esp. considered in regard to style or idiom.
2 style of speech.
Etymology:
ME f. OF locution or L locutio f. loqui locut- speak
N speech, faculty of speech, locution, talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, prolation, oral communication, word of mouth, parole, palaver, prattle, effusion, oration, recitation, delivery, say, speech, lecture, harangue, sermon, tirade, formal speech, peroration, speechifying, soliloquy, allocution, conversation, salutatory : screed: valedictory, oratory, elocution, eloquence, rhetoric, declamation, grandiloquence, multiloquence, burst of eloquence, facundity, flow of words, command of words, command of language, copia verborum, power of speech, gift of the gab, usus loquendi, speaker, spokesman, prolocutor, interlocutor, mouthpiece, Hermes, orator, oratrix, oratress, Demosthenes, Cicero, rhetorician, stump orator, platform orator, speechmaker, patterer, improvisatore, speaking, spoken, oral, lingual, phonetic, not written, unwritten, outspoken, eloquent, elocutionary, oratorical, rhetorical, declamatory, grandiloquent, talkative, Ciceronian, nuncupative, Tullian, orally, by word of mouth, viva voce, from the lips of, quoth he, said he, action is eloquence, pour the full tide of eloquence along, she speaks poignards and every word stabs, speech is but broken light upon the depth of the u, to try thy eloquence now 'tis time.