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Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard
The first book ever to focus on Shakespeare's coinages. Discover terms and meanings still used today. Includes fun quizzes on Shakespearean trivia. A must for Bardophiles everywhere!
273 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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December 17, 2024""
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2009
Shakespeare coined an estimated 1,500 English words. Coined by Shakespeare discusses many of these coinages, citing the play and context of each and how the word has—or hasn't—continued to be used in the ensuing centuries. The word discussions in the book are arranged alphabetically and read like an etymological dictionary.
Many of the words he penned are new forms of existing words; he invented them by doing things like using a noun form of what had only been used as a verb or adding prefixes and suffixes. Some came from names, like pander, which he derived from the character Pandarus in The Iliad. Others, like alligator, came from Spanish el lagarto, "the lizard." Words as varied as addiction, advertising, buzzer, wild-goose chase, wormhole, and zany first found themselves in print on the pages of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
As much as I enjoyed the entries, after a while I wondered why I was reading every page of a book that was in essence a dictionary. Part of the answer lies in the interesting nature of the entries, but what really kept me reading were the quizzes interspersed between each letter of the alphabet's entries. I matched first and ending lines to the plays they came from, answered questions about movie versions of the plays, determined what was fact and what was tradition about Shakespeare's life, took a multiple choice quiz on the Globe theatre, and a lot more. I love quizzes and enjoyed taking them with my daughters and husband.
Next time I teach Shakespeare, I will probably include some of the information about Shakespeare's coinages in the course, but I will definitely use some of the quizzes as a class activity.
Many of the words he penned are new forms of existing words; he invented them by doing things like using a noun form of what had only been used as a verb or adding prefixes and suffixes. Some came from names, like pander, which he derived from the character Pandarus in The Iliad. Others, like alligator, came from Spanish el lagarto, "the lizard." Words as varied as addiction, advertising, buzzer, wild-goose chase, wormhole, and zany first found themselves in print on the pages of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
As much as I enjoyed the entries, after a while I wondered why I was reading every page of a book that was in essence a dictionary. Part of the answer lies in the interesting nature of the entries, but what really kept me reading were the quizzes interspersed between each letter of the alphabet's entries. I matched first and ending lines to the plays they came from, answered questions about movie versions of the plays, determined what was fact and what was tradition about Shakespeare's life, took a multiple choice quiz on the Globe theatre, and a lot more. I love quizzes and enjoyed taking them with my daughters and husband.
Next time I teach Shakespeare, I will probably include some of the information about Shakespeare's coinages in the course, but I will definitely use some of the quizzes as a class activity.
May 12, 2010
It was very interesting to not only to see some of the words that Shakespeare came up with, but to see how he came up with them, and why. It was kind of like read a dictionary, but on how the words were made up.
February 25, 2009
Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard by Stanley Malless (1998)
February 11, 2012
Fascinating.
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May 19, 2014Words and Meanings First Used by the Bard. A Dictionary.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews