Friday, 27 May 2016

grammar - Are idioms impervious to grammatical rules?

I heard someone on the radio this morning who was talking about some interest rate say, "[such and such an interest rate] will remain at one point two percent, in other words: low."



Since "low" is one word, that would seem to make the phrase, "in other words: low" sound incorrect. However, "in other words" is a well-established idiom. Does that make it impervious to grammatical rules, or should he have said "...in another word: low"?

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