Post by Charity on Oct 15, 2004 22:15:53 GMT -5
Did you know that of the 17,677 words that Shakespeare uses in his plays, sonnets, and narrative poems, his is the first use of over 1,700 of them?
At Merriam-Webster's web site, they highlight a new book titled Coined by Shakespeare. This book dedicated itself to researching the words "invented" by the bard. Check out their weekly "Coinages and Curiosities."
Here is a list of some of the individual words that heretofore would not exist without the Bard:
accommodation aerial amazement
apostrophe gnarled hurry
impartial inauspicious assassination
auspicious baseless bump
castigate changeful clangor
control (noun) countless courtship
critic dexeterously dishearten
dislocate dwindle eventful
exposure fitful frugal
generous indistinguishable invulnerable
lapse laughable lonely
majestic misplaced monumental
multitudinous obscene palmy
perusal pious premeditated
radiance reliance road
sanctimonious seamy sportive
submerge
Shakespeare also added to the English language many compound words and cliches that we now cannot live (or write) without:
barefaced fancy-free green eyed
heartsick hot-blooded housekeeping
lackluster leapfrog long-haired
pitched battle clothes make the man method in his madness
to thine own self be true towering passion ministering angel
dog will have his day frailty, thy name is woman neither a borrower nor a lender be
brevity is the soul of wit mind's eye primrose path
flaming youth it smells to heaven the lady doth protest too much
witching time of the night it's Greek to me live long day
breathe one's last heart of gold give the devil his due
too much of a good thing naked truth foregone conclusion
break the ice strange bedfellows wear one's heart on one's sleeve
all that glitters isn't gold eat out of house and home be all and end all
more sinned against than sinning one fell swoop the milk of human kindness
the course of true love never did run smooth
www.geocities.com/kristenjean77/shakefacts.html
At Merriam-Webster's web site, they highlight a new book titled Coined by Shakespeare. This book dedicated itself to researching the words "invented" by the bard. Check out their weekly "Coinages and Curiosities."
Here is a list of some of the individual words that heretofore would not exist without the Bard:
accommodation aerial amazement
apostrophe gnarled hurry
impartial inauspicious assassination
auspicious baseless bump
castigate changeful clangor
control (noun) countless courtship
critic dexeterously dishearten
dislocate dwindle eventful
exposure fitful frugal
generous indistinguishable invulnerable
lapse laughable lonely
majestic misplaced monumental
multitudinous obscene palmy
perusal pious premeditated
radiance reliance road
sanctimonious seamy sportive
submerge
Shakespeare also added to the English language many compound words and cliches that we now cannot live (or write) without:
barefaced fancy-free green eyed
heartsick hot-blooded housekeeping
lackluster leapfrog long-haired
pitched battle clothes make the man method in his madness
to thine own self be true towering passion ministering angel
dog will have his day frailty, thy name is woman neither a borrower nor a lender be
brevity is the soul of wit mind's eye primrose path
flaming youth it smells to heaven the lady doth protest too much
witching time of the night it's Greek to me live long day
breathe one's last heart of gold give the devil his due
too much of a good thing naked truth foregone conclusion
break the ice strange bedfellows wear one's heart on one's sleeve
all that glitters isn't gold eat out of house and home be all and end all
more sinned against than sinning one fell swoop the milk of human kindness
the course of true love never did run smooth
www.geocities.com/kristenjean77/shakefacts.html
