Shakespeare: The Greatest Inventor of English Words & Phrases

I have to admit, I have never been a fan of reading the works of William Shakespeare. That likely had a lot to do with the antiquated English our school texts used and the use of verse more than prose in his writings. Poetical writing is not something I’ve ever enjoyed getting my head around.

His works were written in what is considered to be Early Modern English. Many consider him to be the founder of modern English.

My niece on the other hand, loved Shakespeare. I often found myself fascinated how she distill one his works into terms I could understand making the story come to life.

Shakespeare did some of his writing in prose. The characters speaking prose were usually lower class characters while his upper class used verse. The distinction wasn’t a hard and fast rule Some of Hamlet’s most poignant speeches were delivered in prose.

What Does Interest me About Shakespeare

What does get my attention is the influence his works continue to have over 400 years after their writing. Scholars estimate Shakespeare’s vocabulary was around 24,000 words based on his writings. That is amazing and more so that he was raised in a working class home. No other writer in history has had a vocabulary of that size attributed to him or her.

Shakespeare didn’t just draw on an existing vocabulary, he created it. He’s credited with inventing or introducing 1700 to 2,200 words. Some of the words were likely in use during the era he wrote in but he’s credited with their first use in writing. The words he’s credited with could have indeed been first written down by him or simply the first author identified as having written it down.

His Invented Words

Inventing words serves a range of purposes. The most notable is getting people to pay attention. A word they haven’t heard before will create grab attention, cause the reader/listener to pay attention more than the use of everyday words. Other reasons to invent words include being able to better describe something that is different. Would you know what email was if it was just called mail? 7

Shakespeare is credited with inventing many words. In many instances it was an existing word that he changed the usage of. Here are the ways he invented words:

• changing noun into verbs aka verbing — things like ‘tabling an idea’ or ‘shouldering blame’ or Cleopatra’s “I’ll unhair your head!”
• shifting verbs to adjectives — like: barefaced, blushing & gloomy all were invented by him.
• connecting words never used together before — go-between, honey-tongued, nimble-footed, kickie-wickie
• adding prefixes or suffixes — known as agglutination — dauntless, unearthly, lewdster
• just made words up — addiction, lonely, manager

There are at least 420 words Shakespeare is credited with inventing still in use today.

The Phrases He Introduced That are Still in Use Today

Peppered throughout his works can be found an amazing arrange of phrases many of us use in our every day language unaware they are over 400 years old.

Those ‘Knock Knock’ jokes we have all engaged in? That comes from Macbeth along with:

• Who’s there?
• Be-all and the end-all
• One fell swoop
• Crack of doom
• A charmed life
• What’s done is done
• Sound and fury
• All our yesterdays
• Come what may come
• Milk of human kindness
• A sorry sight

From the comedy “Taming of the Shrew” we received:

• Cold comfort
• Kill with kindness
• Break the ice
• Pitched battle

From the comedy “The Merchant of Venice” we received:

• Bated breath
• Truth will out
• Pound of flesh
• All that glitters is not gold
• Love is blind

From the tragedy “Julius Ceasar”:

• It was Greek to me
• Itching palm
• Lean and hungry look
• Live long day

There are more, this is just a sampling. As I learn how the language I use today is so often found first in Shakespeare’s work, I may have to yet start actually exploring the works or at least finding the context they were first used in.

As we know, context is often everything.

NOTES:

1. This is day 17 of 30 in the #HiveBloPoMo Challenge for April.
2. Original header images from Pixabay - reworked by author
3. Phrases coined by Shakespeare — http://thewhynot100.blogspot.com/2015/04/97-phrases-coined-by-shakespeare.html

Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.

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