Really amazing, or should I say, “Amazin”. “Amazin”, must be one of the favourite words of the younger generation in use today, but where did this word originate? Well, surprisingly, we have William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) to thank. Not only did he invent and introduce the word “amazement”, from which the adjective amazing is derived. He also transformed the English language by introducing so many new words. When he was born in 1564, Latin was the dominant language. Even texts on the English language were written in Latin. However by his death over fty years later in 1616, thanks in great part to him our English language had evolved signicantly. It is estimated that through his plays and poetry, he used more than 20,000 different words, of which approximately 2,000 he invented and introduced to the English language for the rst time. This is even more remarkable when you consider that the Old Testament has just under 6,000 identied words and that the average farm worker at the time in the16th century had a vocabulary of about 300 words. Plays written during his most productive period had an incredible number of new words. Hamlet for example introduced to audiences 600 words that had never been heard before. Among the words rst coined by Shakespeare are: Critical Frugal Excellent Extract Barefaced Eventful Indistinguishable Well-read Majestic Negotiate Addiction Courtship Zany and many others.
Hereditary Countless Lonely Assassination Summit Belongings
He made great use of attaching un-prexes to existing words to make completely new words never used before such as unlock, untie, unhand, unmask and over 300 others. While he was procient in creating new words. It was his ability to coin new phrases which added so much to the richness of the English language. Just some of his creations which have entered the common language include – The be all and end all Wear my heart upon my sleeve Wild goose chase What is done is done Eat me out of house and home Love is blind Heart of gold As good luck would have it In a pickle A foregone conclusion Play fast and loose Too much of a good thing Cold comfort There is method in my madness Flesh and blood Vanish into thin air Tower of strength As dead as a doornail More in sorrow than in anger All that glitters is not gold Any many more... LIVErNEWS No. 75
~ 30 ~ Summer 2021
