By Johanna Dickson, Digital Publicist
William Shakespeare has long been regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time. His works have been translated into 80 languages and are read and studied all over the world. There is probably not a teenager alive who hasn’t read Romeo and Juliet. However, what many people do not know is that he is also responsible for creating over 1,700 words that we still use today. If it wasn’t for the Bard, we wouldn’t be using words like “jaded,” “lower,” “luggage,” and “hint.”
In honor of the anniversary of his birthday today, April 23rd, here are 15 other words that Shakespeare can take credit for, and the plays they first appeared in [source]:
Majestic
“So get the start of the majestic world. And bear the palm alone.” Act I, Scene II, Julius Caesar
Assassination
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well. It were done quickly: if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch. With his surcease success” Act I, Scene VII, Macbeth
Marketable
“All the better; we shall be the more marketable.” Act I, Scene II, As You Like It
Gossip
“And you the calendars of their nativity,Go to a gossips’ feast and go with me;” Act V, Scene I, The Comedy of Errors
Swagger
“What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, So near the cradle of the fairy queen?” Act III, Scene I, A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Champion
“Rather than so, come fate into the list. And champion me to the utterance! Who’s there!” Act III, Scene I, Macbeth
Dwindle
“Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle?” Act III, Scene III, Part I, King Henry IV
Besmirch
“Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will:” Act I, Scene III, Hamlet
Obscene
“where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink” Act I, Scene I, Love’s Labour’s Lost
Fashionable
“For time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,” Act III, Scene III, Troilus and Cressida
Bandit
“Great men oft die by vile bezonians: A Roman sworder and banditto slave Murder’d sweet Tully” Act IV, Scene I, Part II, King Henry VI
Savagery
“Of murder’s arms: this is the bloodiest shame, The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,” Act IV, Scene III, King John
Lackluster
“And then he drew a dial from his poke And, looking on it with lackluster eye, Says very wisely, “It is ten o’clock.” Act II, Scene VII, As You Like It
Grovel
“Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate and grovel on the earth;” Act I, Scene IV, Part II, King Henry VI
Blanket
“Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots; And with presented nakedness out-face The winds and persecutions of the sky.” Act II, Scene III, King Lear
Related: Meet our MC Team: Johanna Dickson
