We all know the extraordinary contribution made by William Shakespeare to the English Language. But do you have any idea about the words Shakespeare invented? Shakespeare is a renowned literary writer who has played a vital role in the advancement of Jargon. He has concocted words by changing regular words into things, action words, or modifiers. Even some of the words Shakespeare invented have either prefixes or additions. Several researchers and literary analysts have found nearly 1700 new words and phrases in the writings of William Shakespeare.
Here, in this blog post, let us take a look at a list of 100+ interesting words and phrases invented by Shakespeare in the English Language along with their meanings.
William Shakespeare- A Word Inventor
William Shakespeare may have designed many great words, nonetheless, some contended that a portion of these words probably wouldn’t have been created by him. Rather, this rundown of Shakespeare’s jargon was in reality initially composed of his works. Most researchers contended that these words which are credited to Shakespeare may have spoken first. This controversial topic might be a good thought for a proposal. Our proposition writers can help you handle it. Do you realize what words did Shakespeare design? Here, we will give you a portion of these words with their related implications.
List of Words Invented by Shakespeare and Their Meanings
Here are some words concocted by Shakespeare. If you’d prefer to improve your writing aptitudes, we encourage you to learn and utilize them. Each word has its comparing meaning. These words Shakespeare made has utilized in one of his plays:
Accommodation
It implies transformation, alteration, or bargain. Utilized in “Measure for Measure” – “For all the accommodations that thou bearest Are breastfed by evil.”
Addiction
It means fixation or reliance. Moreover, this is a typical word that many often use in superstar news. Notwithstanding, it was first utilized in “Othello” – “what game and delights his addiction drives him”
Agile
It implies being equipped to move quickly or without any problem. Can be found in “Romeo and Juliet” – “His agile arm thumps their lethal focuses.”
Allurement
It alludes to allurement, allure, or fascination. It is utilized in “All’s Well That Ends Well” – “one Diana, to notice the allurement of one Count Rousillon”.
Antipathy
This is one of the words authored by Shakespeare that is used to abhor or detest. Utilized in “Ruler Lear” – “No contraries hold more antipathy Than I”.
Arch-scalawag
By including the prefix “curve “: Shakespeare made this word that implies an exceptionally mean individual. He utilized this in “Timon of Athens” – “yet a curve lowlife stays with him”.
Assassination
You may use this term to depict brutal homicide or slaughtering. It was seen in “Macbeth” – “if the death could hamper up the outcome”.
Bedazzled
This word was first used to depict the sparkle of daylight. But by and by it has been utilized for marketing rhinestone-adorned pants. He has utilized in “The Taming of the Shrew” – “my mixing up eyes, that have been so bedazzled with the sun”.
Belongings
It alludes to assets or properties. This is one of the words made by Shakespeare that can be found in “Measure for Measure”.
Catastrophe
It alludes to catastrophe or the stupendous occasion that started the result of the story. You can peruse this in “Ruler Lear” – “he comes, similar to the disaster of the old parody.”
Cold-blooded
You may use this word to portray chronic executioners and vampires. But it was first utilized in “Ruler John” – “Thou cold-blooded slave, hast thou not talked”.
Critical
It is significant to analyze. It has been utilized in “Othello” – “For I am nothing, if not critical.”
Demonstrate
To show, show, or present something. Likewise utilized in “Othello” – “this may help to thicken different pieces of evidence That do exhibit meagerly.”
Dexterously
Dexterously made or finished with precision. Can be found in “Twelfth Night” – “Dexterously, great madonna.”
Dire
It implies awful, hopeless, or unpropitious. Utilized in “Satire of Errors” – “To tolerate the furthest point of dire disaster!”
Dishearten
It intends to baffle or disappoint. The inverse or hearten is first utilized in “Henry V” – in case he, by demonstrating it, ought to dishearten his military”
Dislocate
It intends to make it strange. This is present in “Lord Lear” – “to dislocate and tear Thy fragile living creature and bones.”
Emphasis
It implies focusing on something or making it noticeable. It is present in “Antony and Cleopatra” – “Be stifled with such another emphasis!”
Eventful
It is utilized to portray a pivotal or exciting second. It was communicated in “As You Like It” – “that closes this bizarre significant history”
Eyeballs
It is another word for the eyes. It appears in “As You Like It” – “Your trumpet eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream.”
Emulate
It intends to duplicate or mimic something. You can identify this word in “Joyful Wives of Windsor” – “I perceive how tiny eye would emulate the jewel”.
Exist
It intends to acquire a reality. You may spot this word in “Ruler Lear” – “From whom we do exist and stop to be;”
Extract
It intends to pull back, kill, and draw out. Shakespeare used that to portray in “Henry V” – “Could out of thee extract one flash of fiendishness”.
Fashionable
It implies classy or stylish. Hundreds of years back it was utilized in “Troilus and Cressida” – “For time resembles a chic host”.
Frugal
It alludes to an individual who is prudent, thrifty, and miserly. It is present in “Cheerful Wives of Windsor” – “I was then frugal of my jollity”.
Half-blooded
It is having a relationship with one parent in particular. First utilized in “Ruler Lear” – “Half-blooded individual, yes.”
Hot-blooded
It is being energetic or demonstrating outrageous emotions. Additionally utilized in “Ruler Lear” – “hot-blooded France, that dowerless took our most youthful conceived”.
Hereditary
It is something that you have acquired, innate. This is clear in “Antony and Cleopatra” – “Innate, instead of bought”.
Horrid
It implies appalling or loathsome. One of the basic Shakespeare words that have been utilized in “Hamlet” – is “separate the overall ear with horrid discourse”.
Impertinent
It alludes to being discourteous, superfluous, and ill-bred. This is evident in “Whirlwind” – “the suit is impudent to me”.
Inaudible
It alludes to being quiet or subtle. It was first communicated in “All’s Well That Ends Well” – on our quick’ st orders the unintelligible and silent foot of Time”.
Jovial
It implies being upbeat, sprightly, or carefree. This is utilized in “Macbeth” – “Be splendid and happy among your visitors”.
Ladybird
It alludes to a little, round insect. But during Shakespeare’s time, it doesn’t most likely allude to the bug, but rather it could signify “sweetheart”. It was referenced in “Romeo and Juliet” – “What, sheep! What, ladybird!”.
Manager
It means the overseer or the individual who runs the organization. Shakespeare uses that to portray as such in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – “Where is our standard manager of jollity?”.
Meditate
It intends to consider, mull over, or think. This is communicated in “Twelfth Night” – “I will ponder the while upon some horrid message”.
Modest
It implies timid, moderate, or humble. It appears in “Coriolanus” – “but chase With unassuming warrant”.
Multitudinous
It signifies “a ton” or “too much”. Utilized in “Macbeth” – “this my hand will rather the endless oceans in incarnadine”.
Mutiny
It alludes to the insurgency, uprising, or opposition. Is it found in “Julius Caesar” – “To such an unexpected surge of rebellion”?
New-fangled
It has been utilized for portraying the most recent or the freshest. Utilized in “Adoration’s Labor’s Lost” – “I no more want a rose Than wish a snow in May’s unique merriment”.
Obscene
It implies something disgusting, corrupt, or hostile. Can be seen in “Richard II” – “show so intolerable, dark, disgusting a deed!”
Pageantry
It is one of the words that Shakespeare used to depict a rich show. It was portrayed in “Pericles, Prince of Tire” – “that you appropriately will guess what display”.
Pedant
It means somebody who is fussbudget or formalist. It appears in “Twelfth Night” – “like a pedant that keeps a school”.
Pell-mell
It implies something confused, messy, or in disarray. You may spot this term in “Adoration’s Labor’s Lost” – “Willy nilly, down with them!”
Premeditated
It means something that is arranged, expected, or intentional. From “Henry V” – “have on them the blame of planned and thought up murder”.
Reliance
It alludes to confirmation or reliance. From “Timon of Athens” – “And my reliances on his fracted dates”.
Scuffle
It alludes to a fight or a battle. It was first presented in “Antony and Cleopatra” – “His chief’s heart, which in the fights of extraordinary battles”.
Submerged
It implies inundating, sinking, or submerged. You may find this word in “Antony and Cleopatra” – “So a large portion of my Egypt were lowered and made”.
Swagger
It implies somebody who is gloating or bragging. It is present in “Henry V” – “a blackguard that swaggered with me the previous evening”.
Uncomfortable
It is a feeling abnormal or uncomfortable. This word was referenced in “Romeo and Juliet” – “Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now”.
Vast
It is sufficient, enormous, or wide in range. Utilized in “Timon of Athens” – “with his incredible fascination Robs the vast ocean”.
We trust that you have taken in something from this Shakespeare words list. Realizing what number of words Shakespeare developed will make us wonder, is it likewise conceivable that we could make our new words and be perceived?
Certainly, regardless of whether he was the first to write down this rundown of words Shakespeare created, he is as yet answerable for making them mainstream.
List of Phrases Invented by Shakespeare
Besides new words, Shakespeare also coined some colloquial phrases. Here, let us have a look at some familiar quotes and phrases invented by Shakespeare.
- Break the ice
- Cold Comfort
- Devil incarnate
- Fair play
- In a pickle
- Wild-goose chase
- Pound of flesh
- It’s Greek to me
- A Laughing Stock
- Come what come May
- Clothes make the man
- As good luck would have it
- All that glitters is not gold
- Wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve
- What’s done is done
How Did Shakespeare Invent Words?
Some writers invent words, in the same way, Thomas Edison invented light bulbs: they cobble together bits of sound and create entirely new words without any meaning or relation to existing words. Lewis Carroll does this in the first stanza of his “Jabberwocky” poem:
- `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
- Did gyre and gimble in the wave:
- All mimsy were the borogoves,
Carroll made-up words like “brillig,” “slithy,” “loves,” and “mimsy”; the first stanza alone contains 11 of these made-up words, which are known as nonce words. Words like these aren’t just meaningless, they’re also disposable, intended to be used just once.
Shakespeare did not create nonsense words. He took an entirely different approach. When he invented words, he did it by working with existing words and altering them in new ways. More specifically, he would create new words by:
- Conjoining two words
- Changing verbs into adjectives
- Changing nouns into verbs
- Adding prefixes to words
- Adding suffixes to words
Literary Innovations of William Shakespeare
The most exhaustive take on Shakespeare’s invented words comes from a nice little 874-page book entitled The Shakespeare Key by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke. Here’s how they explain Shakespeare’s literary innovations:
Though today’s readers often need the help of modern English translations to fully grasp the nuance and meaning of Shakespeare’s language, Shakespeare’s contemporary audience would have had a much easier go of it. Why? Two main reasons.
First, Shakespeare was part of a movement in English literature that introduced more prose into plays. (Earlier plays had rhyming verse.) Shakespeare’s prose was similar to the style and cadence of everyday conversation in Elizabethan England, making it natural for members of his audience to understand.
Some Amazing Words Invented by Shakespeare
Shakespeare certainly wasn’t the first person to make up words. It’s entirely commonplace for new words to enter a language. We’re adding new words and terms to our “official” dictionaries every year. In the past few years, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has added several new words and phrases, like these:
- bokeh
- elderflower
- fast fashion
- first world problem
- ginger
- microaggression
- mumblecore
- pareidolia
- ping
- safe space
- way back
- way back machine
- woo-woo
So inventing words wasn’t something unique to Shakespeare or Elizabethan England. It’s still going on all the time.
How Many Words Shakespeare Invented and Why?
So, why did Shakespeare have to make up hundreds of new words? For starters, English was smaller in Shakespeare’s time. The language contained many fewer words and not enough for a literary genius like Shakespeare. How many words? No one can be sure. But one estimate from Encyclopedia Americana, puts the number at 50,000-60,000, likely not including medical and scientific terms.
During Shakespeare’s time, the number of words in the language began to grow. Edmund Weiner, the deputy chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, explains it this way:
The vocabulary of English expanded greatly during the early modern period. Writers were well aware of this and argued about it. Some were in favor of loanwords to express new concepts, especially from Latin. Others advocated the use of existing English words, or new compounds of them, for this purpose. Others advocated the revival of obsolete words and the adoption of regional dialects.
In Shakespeare’s collected writings, he used a total of 31,534 different words. Whatever the size of the English lexicon at the time, Shakespeare was in command of a substantial portion of it. Jason Kottke estimates that Shakespeare knew around 66,534 words, which suggests Shakespeare was pushing the boundaries of English vocabulary as he knew it. He had to make up some new words.
A List of Few More Words Shakespeare Invented
Compiling a definitive list of every word that Shakespeare invented is not at all possible. But here we have shared a few words of his from literature
We have generated a list of words below by starting with the words that Shakespeare was the first to use in written language and then applying research that has identified which words were probably in everyday use during Shakespeare’s time. The result has 422 bona fide words minted, coined, and invented by Shakespeare, from “academe” to “zany”.
- academe
- accessible
- accommodation
- addiction
- admirable
- aerial
- airless
- amazement
- anchovy
- arch-villain
- auspicious
- bachelor ship
- barefaced
- baseless
- batty
- beachy
- bedroom
- belongings
- birthplace
- black-faced
- bloodstained
- bloodsucking
- blusterer
- bodikins
- braggartism
- Brisky
- room staff
- budger
- bump
- buzzer
- candle holder
- catlike
- characterless
- cheap
- chimney-top
- chopped
- churchlike
- circumstantial
- clangor
- cold-blooded
- coldhearted
- compact
- consanguineous
- control
- copper nose
- countless
- courtship
- critical
- cruelhearted
- Dalmatian
- dauntless
- dawn
- day’s work
- deaths-head
- defeat
- depositary
- dewdrop
- dexterously
- disgraceful
- distasteful
- distrustful
- dog-weary
- doit (a Dutch coin: ‘a pittance’)
- domineering
- downstairs
- dwindle
- East Indies
- embrace
- employer
- employment
- enfranchisement
- engagement
- enrapt
- epileptic
- equivocal
- eventful
- excitement
- expedience
- expertness
- exposure
- eyedrop
- eyewink
- fair-faced
- fairyland
- fanged
- fap
- far-off
- farmhouse
- fashionable
- fashionmonger
- fat-witted
- fathomless
- featureless
- fiendlike
- fitful
- fixture
- fleshed
- flirt-gill
- flowery
- fly-bitten
Read also: Who Invented Homework and Why? The History Everyone Should Know
Common Words and Phrases Shakespeare Invented
The following are some words and phrases that were introduced by Shakespeare in plays. We are now commonly using those words and phrases daily. For all those words and phrases, here, we have also presented the meanings and example sentences.
- hostile – a person or manner that is unfriendly
Someone who battles with you about a tree could be viewed as hostile.
- skim milk– milk that has had the fat extracted.
You might have your cereal with skim milk.
- long-legged – having elongated legs
The long-legged girl found it difficult to sit in the back seat.
- overblown – pretentious or outrageous
Your teenager might have overblown dreams of success and glory.
- watchdog– an individual or organization that closely monitors any improper or unlawful activities.
The watchdog group PETA uncovers wrongdoings against animals.
- sanctimonious– acting extremely morally upright or religious
Those who pass severe judgment on others can occasionally be sanctimonious.
- castigate– to mean severely or punish harshly
Sometimes celebrities and politicians are castigated in the press more harshly than ordinary citizens.
- As dead as a doornail – completely dead
After the recession, the company’s profits were as dead as a doornail.
- A tower of strength – someone who is reliable and good in a crisis.
Her spouse provided her with unwavering support throughout her treatment and recuperation, acting as a tower of strength during her cancer battle.
- forever and a day – for a very long time
The couple committed to a lifetime of happiness together by exchanging vows to love each other forever and a day.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have listed only a few words and phrases that were invented by Shakespeare. There are still a lot more words and phrases that were introduced by Shakespeare in his works. If you want to know about those words, refer to the literary works of Shakespeare. His writings are still relevant in our society and traditions today because his influence has played a significant role in the evolution of the English language. Furthermore, his inventions appear to be ingrained in our culture so strongly that it is difficult to envision modern literature existing without his influence. You may also use the words and phrases introduced by Shakespeare in your writings. In case, it is tough for you to handle your literary assignments, approach us. Our team contains talented English assignment helpers to assist you with completing your tasks in the way you want.
