Literature: The Words Shakespeare Wrote

Today is Wordless Wednesday which means most people on social networks are putting up pictures with no words to explain as sometimes pictures don’t need words.  However, I am going to go for a Words Wednesday – specifically the words we use that where created by the master of words himself William Shakespeare.

Yesterday on Chris Evan’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, Chris was discussing words which were made up by Shakespeare in his plays, words and phrases we use regularly today e.g. gossip, the be all and end all.

This got me thinking what other words did Shakespeare invent, and after some research apparently he coined over 1700 words. And he did this by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, connecting words never used together before, adding prefixes and suffixes and devising words that were completely original.  

I know even today there are new words being created and added into the Oxford English Dictionary e.g. Twerk which was invited by Miley Cyrus and is a dance which she created!

Below are some of my favourite words which were Shakespeare created and the plays they were originally found in:

WORD	PLAY
Barefaced	Hamlet
Buzzer	Hamlet
Cold-blooded	King John
Dauntless	King Henry VI, Part III
Dwindle	King Henry IV Part I
Frugal	The Merry Wives of Windsor
Green-Eyed	The Merchant of Venice
Gloomy	King Henry VI, Part III
Gust	Titus Andronicus
Jaded	King Henry VI Part II
Lacklustre	As you like it
Madcap	Love’s Labour’s Lost
Majestic	Julius Caesar
Obsequiously	Richard III
Skim Milk	King Henry IV Part 1
Scuffle	Anthony and Cleopatra
Zany	Love’s Labour’s Lost

I must admit that out of all those plays listed above the only one I have read is Hamlet  - I have read others but not those one. My favourite Shakespeare plays are: A Winter’s Tale (Exit: Pursued by a bear!!) and Much Ado about Nothing especially the character of Benedict (As merry as the day is long!)

Apparently he created the word Eyeball, which makes me wonder, what did people call that bit of their eye before he coined that phrase?

And here are some of the phrases created by Shakespeare which I love:

PHRASE	PLAY
As merry as the day is lone	Much Ado About Nothing / King John
Bated Breath	The Merchant of Venice
Be-all and the end-all	Macbeth
Brevity is the soul of wit	Hamlet
Dead as a doornail	Henry VI Part II
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war	Julius Caesar
Faint hearted	Henry VI Part I
Eaten me out of house and home	Henry IV Part II
Forgone conclusion	Othello
Good riddance	Troilus and Cressida
Heart of gold	Henry V
ill wind which blows no good	Henry IV Part II
In my heart of hearts	Hamlet
In my mind’s eyes	Hamlet
Kill with Kindness	The Taming of the Shrew
Laughing Stock	The Merry Wives of Windsor
Love is Blind	The Merchant of Venice
One fell swoop	Macbeth
Set my teeth on edge	Henry IV Part I
Wear my heart upon my sleeve	Othello
Wild-goose chase	Romeo and Juliet

I must admit that I don’t use a lot of them in my everyday language, but have used most of them on occasions, except ‘Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war’ has never uttered my lips. What a strange phrase.

And I never know that Shakespeare was the creator of Knock Knock Jokes as in Macbeth the phrase ‘Knock Knock! Who’s there?’ is uttered

One of the phrases above is often used in conversations with me or about me as people often say that I ‘wear my heart upon my sleeve’. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?