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The
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9 May 2008 Shakespeare's Bad-Hair Day Greetings, Whenever you mention Shakespeare, most people will immediately think of plays and poems, but we owe him much more than a bit of admiration for the 38 plays and 154 sonnets (plus other poems) he penned, because he coined (or was the first to use) a number of words that we'd be hard-pressed to get by without today. I like to imagine him lazily tickling his chin with the end of his quill as he searches his little grey cells for a term to describe that period when a young blade meets the girl of his dreams and starts sending her love tokens, then finally sums up courage to ask her to step out with him ... What to call it? Nothing around at the time seems to quite capture what he wants to say, so he makes up a term himself: "courtship." Yes, that sounds pretty good ... the "ship" part brings to mind the concept of a journey through life together and the "court" part? Hmmm ... think of the royal court, where you treat the queen like a ... well, like a queen. How else would a gallant treat the woman he wants to marry? Ta-da! Courtship! He had the happy knack of joining two previously unrelated words together in a way that has just "stuck" ... for centuries. (You'll hear about more of these in a moment. Hush, child ... be patient!) And what about an act that you've thought about and planned beforehand? Nothing fits? Let's invent a word ... How about "premeditated?" Another of Shakespeare's. And when he wanted to describe a character who was the same as everyone else, he came up with "indistinguishable." How perfect is that? It wasn't just single words that Shakespeare coined or made popular, he also yoked together existing words in ways no-one had ever seen before ... Words like 'ill' and 'tuned' were joined and never looked back from ill-tuned; 'baby-eyes' and 'smooth-faced' seemed made for each other, 'star' and 'crossed' joined hands as lovers do everywhere, 'be' got together with 'all' as did 'end' and they have the last word. And where would we be without a 'puppy-dog' today? One of the corny jokes about Shakespeare is that his work is full of clichés ... the point being that he it was who first came up with these pithy expressions we all like to use. We all have our 'salad days' when we're living in 'a fools' paradise,' but it's a 'foregone conclusion' that while we wait 'with bated breath,' things will 'come full circle.' And it's 'cold comfort' that while some we meet are 'full of the milk of human kindness' others 'play fast and loose' with the truth. Yes, all these and hundreds more are from the pen of the bard. But even Shakespeare could have the occasional bad-hair day, and we can all be thoroughly grateful that he took these with him to the grave and didn't spoil his 'spotless reputation.' The world is a better place without the cheek-billowing 'unplausive' (not approving), the explosive 'questrist' (a seeker or pursuer), the stutter-inducing 'appertainment' (that which appertains to a person), the tongue-tangling 'vastidity' (vastness; immensity) and the just plain silly 'honorificabilitudinitatibus' (the state of being able to achieve honours).
This week's Little Something Extra has some of Shakespeare's more acceptable neologisms and his major works. And we've all heard the expression that behind every successful man, there's a woman (and its corollary that behind every successful woman there's a basket of ironing waiting to be done), so have you ever wondered what sort of woman Shakespeare's wife was? No? Then it's about time you did! Poor Anne Hathaway is variously dismissed as a conniving older woman who entrapped innocent young Wills into an unhappy marriage or a nagging shrew who drove him away from his home and sentenced him to a life wandering the countryside with his players or the little woman who kept the home fires burning while he gallivanted with a succession of floosies. You may then be surprised to learn that Anne Hathaway was more likely to have been a wealthy business woman in her own right who may have played a very significant role in preserving and publishing her husband's work ... Click now for more on this intriguing theory about Shakespeare's wife. This week's quiz: See how many of Shakespeare's words have worked their way into your vocabulary ... match 'em up (Warning ... Shakespeare's originally intended meanings have sometimes changed over the years): indigest, articulate, immediacy, impair, monumental, incarnadine, primogenitive, obsequiously, besmirch, swagger 1. stain carnation-red colour 2. behaving in the appropriate way towards the dead 3. authority immediately derived; representativeship directly delegated and not intermediately obtained 4. walk or strut with a defiant or insolent air; to boast 5. enter into articles; set forth in articles 6. detract from the honour or lustre of; to soil or tarnish 7. mass of confusion or disorder, a chaos or chaotic state 8. exceptionally great, as in quantity, quality, extent or degree; massive 9. injurious, detracting, entangled, unworthy 10. the claims or right of the first born Here are some interesting new words from the Washington Post: Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease Last week's quiz: What occupation or office (or class of goods) is designated in each of the following? mercery, grindery, chancery, haberdashery, livery, ironmongery, coopery, chandlery, farriery, joinery 1. the place where a smith shoes horses - FARRIERY 2. textiles, especially silks - MERCERY 3. candles and other commodities; dealer in provisions and supplies or equipment of a specified kind - CHANDLERY 4. shoemaker's or leatherworker's material and equipment; shop where such material and equipment may be purchased - GRINDERY 5. store where men's clothes are sold, especially shirts, ties, gloves, socks and hats; dealer in sewing notions and small wares - HABERDASHERY 6. a store selling hardware - IRONMONGERY 7. the care (feeding and stabling) of horses; uniform worn by some menservants and chauffeurs - LIVERY 8. where barrels are made - COOPERY 9. fine woodwork - JOINERY 10. an office of archives for public or ecclesiastic records; a court of public records; court with jurisdiction in equity - CHANCERY And a final word ... or two ... for your vocabulary: Moisturizer: I know you're sad; look how MOISTURIZER Nobility: Lacking the required skills Acupuncture: A jab well done Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com And I'm even prepared to offer a shameless bribe. An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. A Little Something Extra Alec Gill from the University of Hull writes, "An immense number of new words are first recorded in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Apparently, he used a total of 17,677 different words in his writing and 10% had never been recorded in written form before. Every tenth word was brand new! He is credited with some 2000 neologisms." Click here to browse some of these words. And read some of Shakespeare's major works here.
Word of the week: Dispunge (vb) discharge as from a sponge Isn't this a really useful word? Yes, it's another of Shakespeare's ... he used it in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 9."The poisonous damp of night dispunge upon me." Oxymoron of the week: sweet sorrow From Shakespeare ... who else? And a Latin phrase if you're off to watch your favourite sporting team this weekend ... Vincere est totum [ween-KAY-ray EST TOH-toom} (To win is everything) Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? Kind regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Just $17 a year seems a small price to pay for all this wit and wisdom, don't you think? C'mon, that's just a tad more than 30 cents a week! 1.Toss a few pennies into my Running Away Fund at PayPal (Send to jennifer @ write101.com ... without the spaces, of course) OR 2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form. (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart) To unsubscribe from this list, send
a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips- Copyright Jennifer Stewart 2008 Individual articles copyrighted by their authors. |
