The Beauty of Words

Monday

Mar302009

Words fascinate me. The origin of words, otherwise known as etymology, I find to be such a fascinating exploration. We are so accustomed to the words we speak and write each day that it's not often that we stop and examine where they came from, how they were originally used, and who introduced them.

The word "etymology" comes from the Greek word etumos which means real or true; while ology is the study of something. Take the word hippopotamus. The Greeks called horses hippos, while "potamus" meant river: so a hippo is essentially a river horse.

There are endless examples of derivatives that make up the English language. One such word we use often in the modern world, yet didn't even exist not long ago, is blog, the contraction of the word weblog (which you just so happen to be on now).

Recently, while reading about the origins of words, I discovered that William Shakespeare was a master at introducing words into our language. Of the many sonnets, poems, and plays he wrote, 1,700 of the words included were FIRST written by Shakespeare himself. Many of them we use so frequently that it's hard to imagine them not being a part of our vocabulary. Some of those include:

accommodation

admirable

advertising (adj.)

aerial

Photo by THEORO

amazement

apostrophe

assassination

bedroom

belongings

to besmirch

birthplace

bloody

bump

changeful

control (as a noun)

countless

courtship

critic

critical

cruelhearted

disgraceful

dishearten

dislocate

dwindle

employer

employment

engagement

eventful

exposure

eyeball

farmhouse

fashionable

fitful

frugal

generous

gloomy

gnarled

hostile

housekeeping

hurry

impartial

indistinguishable

invitation

invulnerable

lapse

laughable

lonely

lustrous

majestic

mimic

misplaced

monumental

motionless

multitudinous

obscene

pious

premeditated

published

radiance

reliance

road

sanctimonious

satisfying

shipwrecked

shooting star

submerge

suspicious

unearthly

unwillingness

varied

This is obviously a short list of his impact on language and the usage of words. He also coined many phrases that have become accepted and regularly employed, like:

all that glitters is not gold

be all and end all

break the ice

catch a cold

clothes make the man

dog will have his day

elbowroom

fair play

fancy-free

foregone conclusion

give the devil his due

green eyed monster

heart of gold

hot-blooded

housekeeping

it's Greek to me

lackluster

leapfrog

live long day

long-haired

method in his madness

mind's eye

naked truth

one fell swoop

primrose path

strange bedfellows

the course of true love never did run smooth

the milk of human kindness

to thine own self be true

too much of a good thing

wear one's heart on one's sleeve

Next time you happen to use one of these words or phrases, give a small nod to Mr. Shakespeare. I'm sure he would dig that!

To read more about these words that Shakespeare's first introduced, check out the excellent book, "Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard" by Stanley Malless.

Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:36AM | |

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Reader Comments (16)

That is truly an amazing thing!!

April 12, 2009 |

nikki

wow. crazy. Good post, thank you.

And I used the word 'Gloomy' a lot tody, thank you William.

April 12, 2009 |

Tally

do you have a source for this information? I find it hard to believe he first used these words.

April 12, 2009 |

jason

Reply to comment from Jason (above): To read more about these words that Shakespeare's first introduced, check out the excellent book, "Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard" by Stanley Malless.

Malless is an assistant professor of education at Simpson College in Iowa, and teaches courses in history, philosophy, and psychology of education. He has taught Shakespeare at both the secondary and college level and is the co-author of The Elements of English.

Thanks for reading!

April 12, 2009 |

Jinxi Boo

hi :) i really like your blog, it has a lot of random info that makes this blog unique :) here's is my blog if you want it to check http://weroxvx.blogspot.com/ i would try to upload more vegan recipes and other things in english so i can practice some grammar :P well greetings from mexico

April 12, 2009 |

Hector

my sister has a pretty funny coffee mug with shakespearean insults. They're pretty good.
you can check it out at unemployedphilosopher.com

[IMG]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k11/theillestshortyalive/0065.jpg[/IMG]

April 12, 2009 |

cassie

This list is misleading--as are its claims. Shakespeare did NOT invent all of these words. Most are from Latin and have correspondences in, say, French, for instance. Like the word "assassination". In French, it's simply "assassinacion". Remember when William the Conqueror came from France, and all English administration was conducted in French, with French being the language of the ruling elite for hundreds of years? Thus French words passed into English. So many of these words are first attested to in writing in Shakespeare, but that doesn't mean he was the first to use them or even coin them. He was a writer, so he recorded them. That's all. Likewise with many of the axioms and metaphors he's credited with. Actual scholars know that he borrowed most of them from pre-existing "books of adages," etc. I see a bunch of them here falsely attributed to Shakespeare. Sorry to burst your bubble, but he plagiarized, folks. Many of his "original" sayings have been found in earlier literature.

April 12, 2009 |

Drooperdoo

Interesting post but re:Drooperdoo - the author of this blog post gave a reference to where her information came from. Where is the evidence to back up your claim?

I acknowledge that Shakespeare has actually become a bit controversial with people debating if he actually wrote the plays, did he exist, etc. And I have also heard the claims Drooperdoo makes. Much of what I have read on Shakespeare, though, goes along the lines of this blog. But I am not adverse to reading an opposite viewpoint if Drooperdoo could provides some info. It would be interesting to investigate.

April 12, 2009 |

kiwi2704

I just love me some Will Shakespeare...who knows how true, and whether or not he was the first to WRITE what was already commonly spoken? Can't ignore that man and his pen.

April 13, 2009 |

Dolo

@Drooperdoo, the word "Invent" was not used at all in the post. "Introduced" *was*.

April 13, 2009 |

Noah

More to the point, yes, someone else may have used these words in English before Shakespeare, but if his work is the first *recorded* use of these words, then what can we going to do about it? Not much.

April 13, 2009 |

Noah

What a wonderful article.I'll have thank my friend for posting the url on twitter(see,comes in handy for some things:).I have subscribed and look foward to your next post.At last something I can read with genuine interest and not the usual"e-celeb" ego babblings! Thanks again,Glee.:)

April 13, 2009 |

gleegirloz

Well, like most people on here, I too initially accepted with passivity the "cult of personality" surrounding Shakespeare. I knew nothing of the false attributions--except for the fact that every authority admits that all of his plots were just re-written stories from pre-existing plays. Everyone--even children--know this. What's less known, however, are the adages, metaphors and axioms attributed to him. For instance, the phrase "Love is blind" was once attributed to Shakespeare--until someone noticed it in Chaucer [from the year 1387]. Likewise, John Heywood's book of adages. Many of Shakespeare's allegedly "original" phrases are found in this earlier book. For instance, Shakespeare's title "All's Well That Ends Well" is found in it. Recently Richard Posner noticed that Shakespeare's description of Cleopatra--as found in his "Antony and Cleopatra"--was taken verbatim from Plutarch's "Life of Marc Antony".

For me, though, the major source is John Heywood's "Book of Adages". Go to Google and key in "John Heywood" and "Shakespeare," and you'll discover no less than ten phrases which are commonly attributed to Shakespeare but that were in fact derived from Heywood's collection.

April 13, 2009 |

Drooperdoo

John Heywood's "proverbs" contain many phrases still used today like "Don't Look A Gift Horse in the Mouth," "You Want Your Cake and Eat It, Too," "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day," etc.

Heywood himself didn't create these phrases; he merely collected them. As Nietzsche says, "Proverbs are the collective wisdom of a people". Troublingly, people--unaware of this--assume (erroneously) that if they read these same proverbs in Shakespeare that he originated them. He didn't.

As in the above post where I point out that "Love is blind" was originally attributed to Shakespeare (but was then found in Chaucer), here are some other examples of phrases Shakespeare lifted from Heywood:

"Three may keep counsel, if two be away." This proverb occurs first in Heywood’s collection, but then appears years later in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as “Two may keep counsel, putting one away.”

“Haste maketh waste.”
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.

“Let the world slide.” Was also co-opted by Shakespeare for The Taming of the Shrew.

“Fast bind, fast find;
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.”
John Heywood first used it, but it later appears in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 5.

“Hanging and wiving go by destiny.”—Shakespeare appropriated this one for Merchant of Venice, act 2. sc. 9.

“Happy man be his dole.”—Later used in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives, act iii. sc. 4; Winter’s Tale, act i. sc. 2.

“Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?”—Once again, first found in Heywood and later used by Shakespeare in Henry the First. act iii. sc. 2.

April 13, 2009 |

Drooperdoo

Shakespeare also introduced the word 'manager' in Love's Labour Lost (1588), in which Don Adriano de Armado, "a fantastical Spaniard" exclaims (act I, scene II, 188):

"Adieu, valor! rust, rapier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth"

April 22, 2009 |

Matt

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