Shakespeare And Words

Shakespeare and words include words invented by him, words popularized by him, and words created by adding a "un" prefix.^[1]

In the 1623 First Folio a contemporary of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, gave a eulogy of him while mentioning that Shakespeare had “small Latine, and lesse Greeke.” Instead of using Latin or Greek with any frequency, Shakespeare converted nouns into verbs (grace, season), compounded words (pell-mell, faire-play), and created many new words by adding new endings to existing words (dauntless, courtship, and disgraceful are examples).^[2]

Overall, Shakespeare wrote a total of 835,997 words for his plays, at an average of roughly 26,000 per play. The Folger Library lists a total of 884,647 words by Shakespeare for all its works, including his poems and sonnets.

Invented words[edit]

Bandit (Henry VI, Part 2)

Critic (Love’s Labour Lost)

Dauntless (Henry VI, Part 3)

Dwindle (Henry IV, Part 1)

Elbow (verb) (King Lear)

Green-Eyed (as in jealousy) (The Merchant of Venice)

Lackluster (As You Like It)

Lonely (Coriolanus)

Skim-milk (Henry IV, Part 1)

Swagger (Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Words popularized[edit]

• puke

Words hyphenated[edit]

Shakespeare generated more than 300 new words by adding the prefix "un", including:^[1]

Unaware (Venus & Adonis)

Uncomfortable (Romeo & Juliet)

Undress (Taming of the Shrew)

Unreal (Macbeth)

See also[edit]

• Searching Shakespeare by words in proximity

References[edit]