Shakespeare as inventor of new words

[Shapiro, Fred]

Of course, this number will diminish as the revised OED covers the part of the alphabet it has not yet reached.  The better research available to the revised OED, particularly the ability to search Early English Books Online, is, I assume, significantly diminishing Shakespeare's list of coinages.

Fred



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles C Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 10:11 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Shakespeare as inventor of new words

Here we go again:  Yahoo News posts the revelation that Shakespeare, when he couldn't think of a word, just make one up.  Specifically 1,600 words.  As shown in the OED.

http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=24811671

--Charlie

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