Few have shaped our colourful language as profoundly as Shakespeare. Across his many plays and sonnets, Shakespeare played around with language, creating new words, coining new sayings and introducing obsolete words back into our lexicon. He is credited with the first recorded use of over 1,700 words in the English language.
Here are some of the words and phrases Shakespeare either invented from scratch, took from another language, or adapted from existing words.
Common sayings Shakespeare invented
Melted into thin air (The Tempest)
“These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air,” says Prospero in The Tempest.
Wild goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)
Mercutio and Romeo are having a bit of a conversational joust, when Mercutio declares, “If thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.” Shakespeare doesn’t use the “wild goose chase” in the same context as we do today.
Here, Mercutio is saying he will give up because Romeo has got the better of him in this battle of wits, and is now taking the conversation in a direction he wants to – like the original “wild goose chase” horse race, in which the horses followed a lead horse at a set distance in whichever direction the leader went. The phrase’s meaning has evolved from its original usage here to now mean a useless pursuit.
Break the ice (Taming of the Shrew)
Tranio describes the challenges of wooing Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew:
If it be so, sir, that you are the man
Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest,
And if you break the ice and do this feat,
Achieve the elder, set the younger free
For our access, whose hap shall be to have her
Will not so graceless be to be ingrate.
He is suggesting if Petruchio can “break the ice” with Katherine’s father, he might be able to woo her.
Seen better days (As You Like It)
“True it is that we have seen better days,” Duke Senior says, as he reflects on his exile since he was banished from court when his brother took power.
I have not slept one wink (Cymbeline)
“Since I received command to do this business I have not slept one wink,” says Pisanio, referring to the instruction he was given to kill Imogen.
Own flesh and blood (Hamlet)
The term “flesh and blood” appeared in early translations of the Bible – and in the King James Bible: “flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee”. But Shakespeare was responsible for popularising the expression, using it more than a dozen times in his plays.
In King Lear, Gloucester despairs of the fraught relationship between parents and children. “Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile”, while Hamlet highlights the distinction between the spiritual and mortal worlds in family connection, as the ghost implores Hamlet not to reveal secrets of the ghost world to “ears of flesh and blood”.
The be all and end all (Macbeth)
Macbeth is contemplating assassinating King Duncan of Scotland and claiming the throne for himself.
“If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all”
What’s done is done (Macbeth)
Lady Macbeth is urging Macbeth to stop dwelling on the murder of King Duncan of Scotland. “Things without all remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done,” she says.
Wear my heart on my sleeve (Othello)
The play’s villain Iago explains his tactics to Roderigo, explaining that if he were to expose his true emotions he would be inviting attacks. “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at,” he says.
Words Shakespeare invented
Critic (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Although the concept of a critic preceded Shakespeare, the word wasn’t used in its modern sense until Shakespeare used it in Love’s Labour’s Lost, describing someone who examines or judges things carefully and critically.
Jaded (Henry VI, Part 2)
In Henry VI, Part 2, the word “jaded” is used to describe the Lieutenant who is about to execute Suffolk. Suffolk uses it to imply that the man is too tired to be a worthy opponent.
Rant (Hamlet)
“Nay, an thou’lt mouth, I’ll rant as well as thou”, Hamlet declares, signifying his willingness to engage in intense, passionate conversation. The word is believed to be adapted from the Dutch word “randten”, meaning “to talk foolishly” or “to rave”.
Zany (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
In Love’s Labour’s Lost, the word “zany” is used to refer to a clown’s assistant or a mimic.
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