Shakespeare as inventor of new words

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Apr 8 15:31:09 UTC 2011


Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> And because he was Shakespeare, once he "made them up" everybody knew
> exactly what they meant.
>
> If I were to make up a word  (say, "gickblatt") nobody would understand it.
>
> Which once again goes to show Shakespeare's uncanny (of course I mean
> "eerie") genius.

 Shakespeare included a quick gloss for some words.

OED: 1. Phrase hob, nob: have or have not; used by Shakespeare app. in
the sense ‘give or take’.

a1616    Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. iv. 234   His
incensement‥is so implacable, that satisfaction can be none, but by
pangs of death and sepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word: giu't or take't.

The Yahoo news story credits Shakespeare with coining hob nob.

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