SUBJECT: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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Shakespeare
Shakespeare is universal Harold Bloom

How has literature changed the English language?

The best writers expand our personal vocabularies. They teach us new words or use old words in
new ways. Chaucer was very important in this respect.
But by far the most influential writer in the English language is someone we know very little about.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest writer in any language. He is also very
important in the evolution of the English lexicon or vocabulary.
One element of this influence is that he greatly increased the number of word in common use.
In his plays and poems Shakespeare used over 20,000 words. This was at a time when the average
vocabulary was less than 1,000.

New Words
It is difficult to know whether Shakespeare invented new words or recorded them for the first time.
But he is responsible for introducing hundreds of words into the lexicon, including the following:
• accommodation, aerial, amazement, apostrophe, assassination, auspicious,
• baseless, bloody, bump, castigate, control, countless, courtship, critic, critical
• dishearten, dislocate, dwindle exposure, frugal, generous, gloomy, hurry, laughable

New Phrases
In addition to individual new words, there are countless examples of new phrases invented by
Shakespeare. Here are ten examples:
• 'star crossed lovers' - Romeo and Juliet,

• 'sound and fury' - Macbeth

• 'salad days' - Anthony and Cleopatra

• ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be’ - Hamlet

• ‘brave new world - The Tempest

• ‘ a foregone conclusion’ - Othello

• ‘a laughing stock’ - The Merry Wives of Windsor

• ‘a sorry sight’ - Macbeth

• ‘all corners of the world’ - Cymbeline

• ‘all's well that ends well’ - All's Well That Ends Well

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