It’s Greek To Me, and Other Shakespeare Quotes
7 Jun
So most everyone knows that Shakespeare invented the word assassination, right?
Well did you also know he invented the words academe, accused, addiction, advertising, amazement, arouse, backing, bandit, bedroom, beached, besmirch, birthplace, blanket, bloodstained, barefaced, blushing, bet, bump, buzzer, caked, cater, champion, circumstantial, cold-blooded, compromise, courtship, countless, critic, dauntless, dawn, deafening, discontent, dishearten, drugged, dwindle, epileptic, equivocal, elbow, excitement, exposure, eyeball, fashionable, fixture, flawed, frugal, generous, gloomy, gossip, green-eyed, gust, hint, hobnob, hurried, impede, impartial, invulnerable, jaded, label, lackluster, laughable, lonely, lower, luggage, lustrous, madcap, majestic, marketable, metamorphize, mimic, monumental, moonbeam, mountaineer, negotiate, noiseless, obscene, obsequiously, ode, olympian, outbreak, panders, pedant, premeditated, puking, radiance, rant, remorseless, savagery, scuffle, secure, skim milk, submerge, summit, swagger, torture, tranquil, undress, unreal, varied, vaulting, worthless, and zany, along with well over 1,600 other words?
In fact, Shakespeare used only 17,677 different words in all his plays, and he invented 10% of those! His influence on the English language is so huge that whenever you say all that glitters isn’t gold, barefaced, be all and end all, break the ice, breathe one’s last, brevity is the soul of wit, catch a cold, clothes make the man, disgraceful conduct, dog will have his day, eat out of house and home, elbowroom, fair play, fancy-free, flaming youth, foregone conclusion, frailty, thy name is woman, give the devil his due, green eyed monster, heart of gold, heartsick, hot-blooded, housekeeping, it smells to heaven, it’s Greek to me, lackluster, leapfrog, live long day, long-haired, method in his madness, mind’s eye, ministering angel, more sinned against than sinning, naked truth, neither a borrower nor a lender be, one fell swoop, pitched battle, primrose path, strange bedfellows, the course of true love never did run smooth, the lady doth protest too much, the milk of human kindness, to thine own self be true, too much of a good thing, towering passion, wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve, or witching time of the night, you are quoting Shakespeare.
And that’s not even close to the be-all and end-all of it (again, a Shakespeare quote).
Wow. That is … pretty dang impressive.
According to wikipedia, the word “fencing” also appeared first in Shakespeare.
This reminds me of an exercise we used to do in school before reading a Shakespeare play. It was pretty stupid, and after every phrase that Shakespeare invented, the entire class had to say “You’re Quoting Shakespeare!”
PS: Did you know there is more than one accepted spelling of “Shakespeare”?
This is why when people ask “What’s so great about Shakespeare?” my jaw just drops.
WOW.
I just thought he created zany.
o_o
that’s alooooot…..
Shakespeare is freakin’ amazing.
I no!! Wow its so amazing how one man can have such an inpact on how we speak today. By adding to our language so drastically hes impacted millions and millions of people who speak english.
I know he invented “Love letter”
Crazy, huh? To learn the words we use so loosely today are actually invented by this amazing guy called Shakespeare!
that the sweetest thing i’ve ever heard.