Encyclopedia > List of English words invented by Shakespeare
The Changing Status of the English Language The sixteenth century saw the establishment of English as a respectable language alongside French and Latin. Prior to this, legal matters in England were conducted in French, Latin had been used to write history, philosophy and theology, and for the most part writers did not write in their native tongue. The English language had second class-status: the untutored spoke it, while French had been established as the language of the educated after the Normans conquered Britain beginning in 1066. Three hundred years later, English was the linguistic stepchild. English was thought of as being crude and unstable for scholastic purposes, and it was argued that the vocabulary was too limited and the grammatical structure was too simple for the sophisticated user. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area...
Norman conquests in red. ...
A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ...
This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ...
The rise of the literary phenomenon was primarily influenced by the printing press. Until the end of the fifteenth century, the majority of oral communication was conducted in English, whereas the majority of written communication was done in Latin. The mass production and widespread distribution of books tipped the scales in favor of the vernacular. As more people began to read, writers noticed that English had become a practical means of reaching the public. A rise of nationalism also contributed to the rise of the vernacular. As England ascended as a force in European politics, first with Henry VIII and then with Elizabeth I, educators and writers began to associate the English language with English values and national pride. A need to change the structure and vocabulary of the language began to arise. The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...
Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution. ...
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ...
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603 ) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ...
Changes in English at the time Early Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux. When William Shakespeare began writing his plays, the English language was rapidly absorbing words from other cultures due to wars, exploration, diplomacy, and colonization. By the age of Elizabeth, English had become widely used with the expansion of philosophy, theology and physical sciences, but many writers lacked the vocabulary to express such ideas. To accommodate, writers such as Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare expressed new ideas and distinctions by inventing, borrowing or adopting a word or a phrase from another language, known as neologizing. From nouns, verbs and modifiers of Latin and Greek and other modern Romance languages, it is estimated that between the years of 1500 and 1659 30,000 new words were added to the English language.[citation needed] Shakespeares writings are universally associated with Early Modern English Early Modern English refers to the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period (the latter half of the 1400s) to 1650. ...
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The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
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Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (November 30, 1554 - October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Ages most prominent figures. ...
Christopher (Kit) Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593?) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. ...
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A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νÎος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ...
Words used by Shakespeare In all his plays, Shakespeare reveals his interest for the evolving ideas, words and literary traditions of his time. It is widely assumed that Shakespeare himself introduced more words into English than all the other writers of his time combined. However, calculating the number of words Shakespeare coined is difficult. First, one must define the meaning of coinage. Should variations of existing words or existing words to which he gave new meaning be counted? Should one consider compound words? Also, one must take into account that a word might be considered of Shakespearean origins only because his works have been more thoroughly scrutinized than others of his time. A word might also have existed in oral communication long before Shakespeare set it to paper. Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown A play, written by a playwright, or dramatist, is a form of literature, almost always consisting of dialog between characters, and intended for performance rather than reading. ...
Shakespeare’s own contribution to the expansion of the English language was noticed as early as 1598, when commentator Francis Meres, applauding English literature in relation to the classics, placed Shakespeare among the writers who had dignified the language. Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, critics and scholars began to doubt whether Shakespeare had a significant effect on the expansion of English vocabulary. This is mainly based on the neoclassical image of him as a poor Latinist. In the early twentieth century, there was an overreaction to this, so that one critic credited William Shakespeare with having coined nearly 10,000 words. Francis Meres (1565 - January 29, 1647), was an English churchman and author. ...
Although it is often difficult, if not often impossible, to determine the true origin of a word, for the following words, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists a quotation from Shakespeare as its earliest example. However, proceeding from this to the conclusion that Shakespeare invented the following words or additional senses is dubious at best. The editors of the OED did not search through every surviving text for every word to find the earliest quotation. Not only would this be an impossible task before the digitization of all surviving texts, but they were interested in quotations that were illustrative of the word's meaning. Furthermore, in their reading programme, they explicitly instructed their volunteer readers to search in the Elizabethan period for words not in the concordance to Shakespeare. The earliest citations in the OED by Shakespeare should not be taken as earliest usages but rather as examples of editorial bias. Further information can be found in the following sources: Lexicography and the OED, edited by Lynda Mugglestone, Documentation in the OED Jürgen Schäfer, and Empire of Words by John Willinsky. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ...
List of Words first used by Shakespeare Given the difficulty of tracing a word's true origin, it is probable that not all these words were invented by Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare may have not invented all these following words, most of the earliest citations for them in the OED are from Shakespeare. This fact means little about their origin, as stated above. Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by Théodore Chassériau. ...
Sources - Shakespeare and the Origins of Language by Neil Rhodes
- Growth and Structure of the English Language by Otto Jespersen
- Shakespeare and the Arts of Language by Russ McDonald
- Lexicography and the OED edited by Lynda Mugglestone
- Documentation in the OED by Jürgen Schäfer
- Empire of Words by John Willinsky
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