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100+ Words and Phrases Invented by Shakespeare

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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:

Words Shakespeare Invented

 

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”.

  1. academe
  2. accessible
  3. accommodation
  4. addiction
  5. admirable
  6. aerial
  7. airless
  8. amazement
  9. anchovy
  10. arch-villain
  11. auspicious
  12. bachelor ship
  13. barefaced
  14. baseless
  15. batty
  16. beachy
  17. bedroom
  18. belongings
  19. birthplace
  20. black-faced
  21. bloodstained
  22. bloodsucking
  23. blusterer
  24. bodikins
  25. braggartism
  26. Brisky
  27. room staff
  28. budger
  29. bump
  30. buzzer
  31. candle holder
  32. catlike
  33. characterless
  34. cheap
  35. chimney-top
  36. chopped
  37. churchlike
  38. circumstantial
  39. clangor
  40. cold-blooded
  41. coldhearted
  42. compact
  43. consanguineous
  44. control
  45. copper nose
  46. countless
  47. courtship
  48. critical
  49. cruelhearted
  50. Dalmatian
  51. dauntless
  52. dawn
  53. day’s work
  54. deaths-head
  55. defeat
  56. depositary
  57. dewdrop
  58. dexterously
  59. disgraceful
  60. distasteful
  61. distrustful
  62. dog-weary
  63. doit (a Dutch coin: ‘a pittance’)
  64. domineering
  65. downstairs
  66. dwindle
  67. East Indies
  68. embrace
  69. employer
  70. employment
  71. enfranchisement
  72. engagement
  73. enrapt
  74. epileptic
  75. equivocal
  76. eventful
  77. excitement
  78. expedience
  79. expertness
  80. exposure
  81. eyedrop
  82. eyewink
  83. fair-faced
  84. fairyland
  85. fanged
  86. fap
  87. far-off
  88. farmhouse
  89. fashionable
  90. fashionmonger
  91. fat-witted
  92. fathomless
  93. featureless
  94. fiendlike
  95. fitful
  96. fixture
  97. fleshed
  98. flirt-gill
  99. flowery
  100. 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.

Jacob Smith Education Reading Time: 15 minutes

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