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​​DIRECTORY OF LOGOPHILE LIBRARY
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Bardolatry refers to a craze for Shakespeare
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The Humor of a Shakespearean Insult
Shakespearean Translation of Star Trek ?
Components of Poetry

Words Coined by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
​

COINING A WORD
Shakespeare has influenced the English language and has contributed to the standardization of English language rules and grammar in the 17th and 18th centuries. 1700 words are thought to be coined by Shakespeare, however there is extensive debate about the accuracy of this number.

Shakespeare appears as the first documented user in the Oxford English Dictionary for more words than any other writer. This makes it easy to assume that he was the creator of all of those words.

Many of these words were probably just part of everyday conversation in Elizabethan England. So Shakespeare may not have invented all of these words he is just the first preserved recorder of some of them. Shakespeare may have been just the first person to write down some of these words, he definitely did create many of them himself.

​Shakespeare invented words by working with existing words and altering them in new and different ways. For example:
  • Conjoining two words
  • Changing verbs into adjectives
  • Changing nouns into verbs
  • Adding prefixes to words
  • Adding suffixes to words

​WORDS COINED BY SHAKESPEARE

BEDAZZLED -Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene v
“Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, that have been so bedazzled with the sun that everything I look on seemeth green.”*
  • DEFINITION: to confuse by a strong light
* Word has been debated for authenticity

BOLD-FACED - I Henry VI, Act 4. Scene VI
“When from the Dauphin's crest thy sword struck fire,
It warm'd thy father's heart with proud desire
Of bold-faced victory. Then leaden age,
Quicken'd with youthful spleen and warlike rage” *
  • DEFINITION: bold in manner or conduct
* Word has been debated for authenticity

COLD-BLOODED - King John, Act III, Scene I
“Thou cold-blooded slave, hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend upon thy stars, thy fortune and thy strength”
  • DEFINITION: done or acting without consideration, compunction, or clemency

DISHEARTEN - Henry V, Act IV, Scene I
“Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.”
  • DEFINITION: to cause to lose hope, enthusiasm, or courage :to cause to lose spirit

EVENTFUL - As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
“Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
  • DEFINITION: full of or rich in events

GLOOMY - King Henry VI, Part I, Act V, Scene iv
"May never glorious sun reflex his beams upon the country where you make abode; But darkness and the gloomy shade of death environ you, till mischief and despair drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!"
  • DEFINITION: partially or totally dark; especially:dismally and depressingly dark

FASHIONABLE -Troilus & Cressida, Act III, Scene III
"For time is like a fashionable host that slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, and with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing.”
  • DEFINITION: conforming to the custom, fashion, or established mode

LONELY- Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene i
“My hazards still have been your solace: and believe't not lightly — though I go alone, like to a lonely dragon, that his fen makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen — your son will or exceed the common or be caught with cautelous baits and practise."
  • DEFINITION: sad from being alone :lonesomeHe was feeling lonelywithout his wife and children. producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation

MAJESTIC - Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II
“Ye gods! It doth amaze me a man of such a feeble temper should so get the start of the majestic world and bear the palm alone."
  • DEFINITION: having or exhibiting majesty(greatness or splendor of quality or character)

MOONBEAM - Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene I “I have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.”
  • DEFINITION: a ray of light from the moon

NEW-FANGLED -Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I, Scene I “Christmas I no more desire a rose than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth”
  • DEFINITION: attracted to novelty; of the newest style or kind

RANT - Hamlet, Act V, Scene I
“Nay, an thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well as thou."
  • DEFINITION: To talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner

SANCTIMONIOUS - Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene I “Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table”
  • DEFINITION: hypocritically pious or devout

SCUFFLE - Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene I
“His captain's heart, which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst the buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, and is become the bellows and the fan to cool a gipsy's lust”
  • DEFINITION: to struggle at close quarters with disorder and confusion

SHOOTING STAR - Richard II, Act II, Scene IV
”Ah Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind
I see thy glory like a shooting star
Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest:
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.”
  • DEFINITION: a visual meteor appearing as a temporary streak of light in the night sky

SWAGGER - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene I “Why hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?"
  • DEFINITION: to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner; especially:to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence

TONGUE-TIED - III Henry VI, Act III, Scene III
“Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts
And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.
Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis,
That Henry, sole possessor of my love,
Is of a king become a banish'd man”
  • DEFINITION: unable or disinclined to speak freely (as from shyness)

TRANSCENDENCE - All's Well that Ends Well, Act II, Scene III
“And debile minister, great power, great transcendence: which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than alone the recovery of the king, as to be”
  • DEFINITION: extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience

WILD GOOSE CHASE - Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II
“Our wits the wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?”
  • DEFINITION: a complicated or lengthy and usually fruitless pursuit or search

ZANY - Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene II
"Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick, that smiles his cheek in years and knows the trick to make my lady laugh when she's disposed, told our intents before."
  • DEFINITION: one who acts the buffoon to amuse others