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 âgive or takeâ.
a1616 Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. iv. 234 His
incensementâ¥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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