8-3Neologisms

  WHAT NEOLOGISMS DID SHAKESPEARE CREATE IN HIS WRITING? //Answer prepared by Emma K.// A neologism is an invented word or phrase. It can also be defined as the practice of coining new words or phrases, or the practice of extending the meaning of existing words or phrases. Shakespeare created countless neologisms in his writing; in fact, it is likely that you use words first used by this playwright in your everyday conversations.

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes over 500 words to be coined by Shakespeare. Author Michael Macrone explains that it’s not always easy to determine who first coined a word. But here is an excerpt from his book, __Brush up Your Shakespeare__, which uses words that most people acknowledge to first be written by Shakespeare. These words are in bold print: “From the **spectacled pedant** to the **schoolboy**, all **gentlefolk** recognize Shakespeare as a **fathomless** **fount** of coinages. The **honey-tongued** Bard had no **rival**, nor could he **sate** his **never-ending** **addiction** to **madcap**, **flowery** (or **foul-mouthed**!) neologisms. Even **time-honored** exposure cannot **besmirch** our amazement at the **countless** and **useful** words that lend **radiance** to our **lackluster** lives. **All in a day’s work**!”

While many of the words listed above may seem obscure to you, Shakespeare also thought up some words and sayings that you are almost certainly familiar with, say Colleen Aagesen and Margie Blumberg on page 36 of their book __Shakespeare for Kids.__ Words such as addiction, alligator (from the Spanish word //el lagarto//), anchovy (from the Spanish word //anchova//), critic (from the Greek word //krinein),//gloomy, glow, gnarled, lonely, leapfrog, tardiness, bedroom, and bandit were all used first by Shakespeare.

Shakespeare also created new terms such as love letter, puppy dog, and well-behaved. In addition to all of these, he was the first to use the expressions as luck would have it, budge an inch, foul play, my own flesh and blood, not slept one wink, seen better days, vanish into thin air, and without rhyme or reason. Our language and the way we speak today would be very different and probably much less interesting as well if it hadn’t been for Shakespeare’s ingenuity and inventiveness. **//Works Cited://** Aagesen, Colleen, and Margie Blumberg. __Shakespeare for Kids__. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 1999.

"Kids Are Quoting Shakespeare." __Folger.edu__. Folger Shakespeare Library. 16 Apr. 2009 .

McQuain, Jeffrey, and Stanley Malless. __Coined by Shakespeare__. New York: Merriam-Webster, 1998.

__The Beautiful Words Of Shakespeare__ Prepared by Za'Novia McKinley  Shakespeare himself had an extremely unusual vocabulary. In his section on Shakespeare in // 12 Books That Changed The World //, Melvyn Bragg records that Shakespeare’s vocabulary apparently amounted to “at least twenty-one thousand words – possibly, when the combinations and different uses of these words are added, thirty thousand words.” He estimates that an educated person today, even with the vast additions to the language which have occurred in the four centuries since Shakespeare wrote, will have a working vocabulary of less than ten thousand words. The equivalent of an average audience member at The Globe, bearing in mind much lower literacy rates, and the social variation of theatre goers, must have been much lower. Obviously Shakespeare was writing extremely literary and carefully-wrought plays. Part of these figures would have been taken up by so-called “poetic diction”, words that only appeared in literary contexts; “cerulean” and “Olympian”, for example. Even with these factored in, however, 20,000 to 30,000 is an enormous number, both in itself and in proportion with the vocabulary of other people. In fact, Shakespeare seems to have simply made up a lot of words for his own use. Who can blame school students if they don’t immediately understand everything he says? This incredible use of words has other implications. Historical novels set in the Renaissance often put readers’ teeth on edge when they attempt “ye olde dialogue” in Early Modern English. The effect frequently seems forced, awkward and embarrassing, grasping after some kind of “Shakespearean English”, when people in Shakespeare’s time wouldn’t have spoken anything like Shakespeare. They certainly don’t sound Shakespearean in contemporary prose stories like // Jack of Reading // by Thomas Nashe. Attempts to “translate” Shakespeare into modern everyday English also frequently founder on the same problem: Shakespeare wasn’t writing in his everyday English, so it’s extremely hard to say what he wants to say in our everyday English. It is too often forgotten that Shakespeare wasn’t speaking Early Modern English. He was speaking Shakespeare.