An Online Guide to Shakespeare the Neologist

Without a doubt, Shakespeare is considered by many as the greatest English playwright to have ever lived. With more than 38 plays credited to his name, plus more than 150 poems, many people do not know about the many words he has contributed to the English language. In fact, there are more than 2,000 words that were first used by the man himself.

Shakespeare: Neologist

Neologism refers to a word that the author whipped up. It was the author that thought of it, and used it. The term comes from the Greek word Neo, which means news, and the word logism, which means speech or thought. It is widely recognized that Shakespeare has more than 2,200 neologisms. It is possible that the words were already being used in his time, but it was Shakespeare who first used the word in print. There are experts like David Crystal who believe that Shakespeare invented some words himself, and that he has created 1,700 new words.

Even in modern times, we use many word that came from Shakespeare. While not every word he created was a success, more than 50% of the neologisms he used in his pays were used in his days. Some words, like anthropophaginian, which means cannibal, never made it as a common word. There are common words that he invented that we still use today, such as frugal, horrid, and obscene.

Playing with Words

Apart from creating new words, he also created those out of playing or toying with words that were already existing. Shakespeare was known to not care about grammar, so he added prefixes to existing words to create new ones. For example, he added the prefix “un” to words like hand and lock, and so these new verbs were created, and are still used until today.

He also combined new words to create new ones. For example, he joined “blood” and “stained” to create blood-stained. He combined “bare” and “face” to create the word “barefaced”. It was also not uncommon for him to change the meaning of the words. For example, he used the word “angel” to define beauty in the famous Romeo and Juliet.

He also has a tactic that he commonly used where he turned nouns into verbs. People still do it in modern times. Or vice versa, he used verbs as nouns. An example is the word “shudder”, a word that is a verb. Shakespeare, however, used it as a noun in the play Timon of Athens.

The Context of Shakespeare’s Language

It was in the early stages of Modern English when Shakespeare began writing his plays and poems. The language was then shifting from Middle English to Modern English. Middle English is a kind of English that poets like Geoffrey Chaucer used. Although Middle and Modern English have similarities, it was still a difficult language to use, say, and even understand.

As the language was transitioning, Shakespeare and other people from the same industry were creating new words. There were writers like Ben Jonson who created new words like “defunct” and “clumsy”. The popular playwright, Sir Thomas More, created words like “explain” and “acceptance”. Sir Tomas Elyot, on the other hand, created the word “modesty”.

Popular Shakespearean Phrases

Shakespeare coined many words. As time went by, people started using these words until these words found themselves in common day to day use. Until today, these words remain popular. If you will care to look at the Oxford Book of Quotations, about 10% of the entries there are from Shakespeare. Some of these phrases are surprising, as one would not expect that these came from the man himself.

Below are some of the phrases that came from Shakespeare, and from what plays they were taken.

Below are some resources that will help you get a deeper understanding about his neologisms.