A man of MANY WORDS

Did you know that many words and phrases we use daily were invented by Shakespeare? Here are some of the most surprising and their intriguing origins…

There is no doubt that William Shakespeare is the most celebrated dramatist and poet in the English language. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems and have been translated into 80 different languages, including Star Trek’s Klingon (yes, really). With such a span of works, it’s no surprise that Shakespeare used as many as 20,000 different words in his plays. To put that into perspective, the Old Testament is made up of only 5,642 words, and an unschooled agricultural worker in Shakespeare’s time would probably have had under 300 words in his vocabulary. Shakespeare’s works also provide the first ever recorded use of as many as 1700 words and phrases. It is believed he may have invented or introduced many of these…

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Discover Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, February - March 2024

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