{"id":1833,"date":"2015-04-22T18:54:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T18:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mytutorweb.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1833"},"modified":"2022-06-30T10:43:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T10:43:47","slug":"shakespeares-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/","title":{"rendered":"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend Shakespeare turns the big four-five-one. As the world gears up to celebrate this momentous occasion, I feel it is only right that we should reflect on the colossal way in which Shakespeare’s language is still with us. Yes, it may be true that the sword fighting, kingship and alchemy that take place in Shakespeare\u2019s work are now a little removed from the lives of most of his readership. But that doesn’t mean he’s not pertinent in today\u2019s world: Shakespeare’s language has influenced us far more than we may realise. (Title photo credit: Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I am sure some of you may be wondering how on earth Shakespeare\u2019s language is still significant in a world perpetuated by \u2018selfies\u2019 and \u2018OMGs\u2019. But the fact is that whether or not you’ve read the works of Shakespeare, your speech\u00a0is probably\u00a0peppered with his\u00a0idioms.<\/p>\n

Here is just a flavour of some of the words Shakespeare coined:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Obscene\u2019<\/strong>:\u00a0 Love\u2019s Labour Lost (Act 1, Scene 1)<\/p>\n

Ferdinand: \u2018I did encounter\/that obscene and preposterous event\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Premeditated\u2019<\/strong>:\u00a0 King Henry VI, Part I (Act 3, Scene 1)<\/p>\n

Bishop of Winchester: \u2018Comest thou with deep premeditated lines\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Gossip\u2019: <\/strong>The Comedy of Errors, (Act 5, Scene 1)<\/p>\n

Duke Solinus: \u2018With all my heart, I’ll gossip at this feast.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

And even:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Swagger\u2019<\/strong>:\u00a0 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 3, Scene 1)<\/p>\n

Puck:\u00a0 \u2018What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here\/ So near the cradle of the fairy queen? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, swagger really did make its first written debut\u2019s in Shakespeare\u2019s work, which means it is Shakespeare, not Justin Bieber, we have to thank for that infamous Cher Llloyd song…<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re staring at your screen in \u2018amazement\u2019<\/strong>[1]<\/a> over the \u2018countless\u2019<\/strong>[2]<\/a> words that Shakespeare invented that are still \u2018fashionable\u2019<\/strong>[3]<\/a>\u00a0in our society, it may just have \u2018dawned\u2019<\/strong>[4]<\/a> on you that Shakespeare is still a modern day \u2018champion\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>[5]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still \u2018in a pickle\u2019<\/strong>[6]<\/a> about how different the English language would be without Shakespeare, why not take a look at some of the phrases that also stem from The Bard himself:<\/p>\n

\u2018All that glitters is not gold\u2019<\/em> (The Merchant of Venice)<\/p>\n

\u2018Be-all and the end-all\u2019<\/em> (Macbeth)<\/p>\n

\u2018Catch a cold\u2019 <\/em>(Cymbeline)<\/p>\n

\u2018For goodness’ sake\u2019<\/em> (Henry VIII)<\/p>\n

\u2018Laughing stock\u2019<\/em> (The Merry Wives of Windsor)<\/p>\n

\u2018Melted into thin air\u2019<\/em> (The Tempest)<\/p>\n

For many more check out this BBC piece for\u00a0Shakespeare’s 450th birthday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another way in which Shakespeare can be deemed responsible for shaping language is due to the revolutionary way in which he changed nouns to verbs and verbs to adjectives.\u00a0 He also connected words by adding prefixes such as \u2018un\u2019 and \u2018arch\u2019 to their beginnings, heralding\u00a0words such as \u2018uncomfortable\u2019, which made its debut in Romeo and Juliet:<\/p>\n

Capulet: \u2018Despised, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d! Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now to murder, murder our solemnity?\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 (Act 4, Scene 5)<\/p>\n

\u00a0An estimated 1700 common words we use today are attributed to the works of Shakespeare. However, there has been much debate by critics as to whether Shakespeare actually invented these words. Some critics\u00a0claim\u00a0that Shakespeare was simply the first to write them down. The English language was not standardised until the seventeenth century, meaning there was no consistent approach to spelling\u00a0or grammar before this period. This all changed when Samuel Johnson published his \u2018Dictionary of the English Language\u2019 in 1755.\u00a0 This was a revolutionary publication because it was the most in depth and well researched dictionary of its time, and in writing it\u00a0Johnson heavily relied upon Shakespeare\u2019s work to provide literary examples of English words. So\u00a0Samuel Johnson also had a part in helping Shakespeare\u2019s silken verse become ingrained in the English language.<\/p>\n

Although the debate continues as to whether Shakespeare actually invented these words and phrases, what cannot be denied is that Shakespeare had a great hand in allowing the English language to become such a rich and vibrant dialect. \u00a0His plays were the vessels which immortalised many of the words that we use today.\u00a0 So, let us commemorate Shakespeare\u2019s birthday by celebrating the marvellous way in which he enriched the English language. \u00a0One thing\u2019s for sure, it would certainly be a \u2018sorry sight\u2019<\/strong>[7]<\/a> without him!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> King John\u00a0[2]<\/a> Titus Andronicus\u00a0[3]<\/a> Troilus and Cressida\u00a0[4]<\/a> Henry V\u00a0[5]<\/a> Macbeth\u00a0[6]<\/a> The Tempest\u00a0[7]<\/a> Macbeth<\/p>\n

Written by\u00a0Poppy<\/em> Murr<\/a>ay<\/a><\/p>\n

A MyTutor English Tutor<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend Shakespeare turns the big four-five-one. As the world gears up to celebrate this momentous occasion, I feel it is only right that we should reflect on the colossal way in which Shakespeare’s language is still with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[788,248],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/en-gb.facebook.com\/MyTutorUK\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-22T18:54:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-30T10:43:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MyTutor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MyTutor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/\",\"name\":\"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-22T18:54:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-30T10:43:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73140197d1bbf1aa85ec442089e7403\"},\"description\":\"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73140197d1bbf1aa85ec442089e7403\",\"name\":\"MyTutor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45c16c6d2547a06e1dbc76d3f7e1d2d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45c16c6d2547a06e1dbc76d3f7e1d2d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MyTutor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/author\/robert\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog","description":"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog","og_description":"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/","article_publisher":"https:\/\/en-gb.facebook.com\/MyTutorUK\/","article_published_time":"2015-04-22T18:54:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-30T10:43:47+00:00","author":"MyTutor","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MyTutor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/","name":"How Shakespeare Influenced the English Language - MyTutorWeb Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-22T18:54:42+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-30T10:43:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73140197d1bbf1aa85ec442089e7403"},"description":"Shakespeare's language had a dramatic impact on modern English. You may not realise it, but you're probably using words coined by the Bard all the time.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/parents\/school-subjects\/shakespeares-language\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73140197d1bbf1aa85ec442089e7403","name":"MyTutor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45c16c6d2547a06e1dbc76d3f7e1d2d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45c16c6d2547a06e1dbc76d3f7e1d2d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MyTutor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/author\/robert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1833"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11726,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1833\/revisions\/11726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mytutor.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}