SHAKESPEARE IN
TODAY’S ENGLISH
Many languages have their representative writers: Spanish has Cervantes, German has Goethe, and
the Portuguese language was beautifully written in Camões’s poetry. Needless to say, Shakespeare
did the same for the English language.
How does art (poetry, cinema, TV, music) influence the way we speak?
1. What are the definitions of the following words?
1. Laughable
2. Majestic
3. Lonely
4. Radiance
5. Hurry
6. Generous
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7. Frugal
8. Critical
9. Undress
10. Rant
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) To take your clothes off
) Freely giving or sharing money and other valuable things
) To talk loudly and in a way that shows anger: to complain in a way that is unreasonable
) Bad in a way that seems foolish or silly
) Sad from being apart from other people
) Move or act with haste; rush
) Expressing disapproval
) Careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to
) A quality of brightness and happiness that can be seen on a person’s face
) Large and impressively beautiful
The above words were all first used in Shakespeare’s works. Read their origins and first uses below:
Laughable
Origin: Derived from the verb “laugh.”
Quote: “Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.” - The Merchant of Venice
Majestic
Origin: From “majesty,” which appeared in the 1300s, meaning “greatness.” “Majestical” was first used in the 1570s.
Quote: “This is a most majestic vision” - The Tempest
Lonely
Origin: “Alone” was first shortened to “lone” in the 1400s.
Quote: “Believe’t not lightly – though I go alone / Like to a lonely dragon that his fen -Coriolanus
Radiance
Origin: Derived from the Latin “radiantem,” meaning “beaming.”
Quote: “For by the sacred radiance of the sun” - King Lear
Hurry
Origin: Likely derived from the verb “harry”
Quote: “Lives, honors, lands, and all hurry to loss.” - Henry VI Part 1
Generous
Origin: From the Latin “generosus,” meaning “of noble birth.”
Quote: “Free me so far in your most generous thoughts / That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house / And hurt my
brother.” - Hamlet
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Frugal
Origin: From the Latin “frugi,” meaning “useful, proper, worthy, honest.”
Quote: “Chid I for that at frugal Nature’s frame?” - Much Ado About Nothing
Critical
Origin: From the Latin “criticus,” which referred specifically to a literary critic.
Quote: “For I am nothing if not critical” - Othello
Undress
Origin: “Dress” comes from the Old French “dresser,” meaning “prepare, arrange, straighten, put right.”
Shakespeare was the first to add the prefix “un-.”
Quote: “Madam, undress you and come now to bed.” - The Taming of the Shrew
Rant
Origin: Derived from the Dutch “randten,” meaning “talk foolishly.”
Quote:”I’ll rant as well as thou.” - Hamlet
2. Read the following article about Shakespeare’s influence in modern English.
How Shakespeare influences the way we
speak now
(Hephzibah Anderson, BBC. http://bbc.in/1mz7TaH )
Next time you refer to jealousy as “the green-eyed monster,” know that you’re quoting Othello’s arch villain,
Iago. (Shakespeare was almost self-quoting here, having first touched on green as the colour of envy in The
Merchant of Venice, where Portia alludes to “greeneyed jealousy.”)
Henry V, while “the world’s mine oyster” crops up in
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
His impact endures not only in the way we express ourselves, but how we experience and process the world
around us. Had Shakespeare not given us the words,
would we truly feel “bedazzled” (The Taming of the
Allow yourself to “gossip” (A Midsummer Night’s Shrew)? Had he not taught us the word “gloomy” (TiDream), and you’re quoting him. “The be-all and end- tus Andronicus), would it be a feeling we recognised in
all” is uttered by Macbeth as he murderously contem- ourselves? And could we “grovel” effectively (Henry VI,
plates King Duncan, and “fair play” falls from Miran- Part II) or be properly “sanctimonious” (The Tempest)
da’s lips in The Tempest. And did I mention that he had he not shown us how?
invented the knock-knock joke in the Scottish play?
Scholars have argued back and forth over just how
Some phrases have become so well used that they’re many of these words and phrases Shakespeare actually
now regarded as clichés – surely a compliment for an coined, and how many he merely popularised by bedauthor so long gone. “A heart of gold”? You’ll find it in ding them down in a memorable plot. In the past few
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years, quantitative analysis and digital databases have
allowed computers to simultaneously search thousands
of texts, leading scholars to believe that we may have
overestimated his contribution to the English language.
forgettable characters – men and women who, despite
the extraordinary situations in which they tend to find
themselves, are fully and profoundly human in both
their strengths and frailties. It’s little wonder that critic
Harold Bloom titled his 1998 book on the man Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
How did he manage it, you might wonder? It’s partly
his turn of phrase. Would “fashionable” have caught on
had not set it in such a wry sentence as this in Troi- If the mark of a great writer is that they’re still read,
lus and Cressida? “For time is like a fashionable host, then perhaps the mark of a genius is that they’re still
that slightly shakes his parting guest by th’ hand.” Then spoken, too.
there’s the fact that these words are voiced by some un-
Research the meaning of the expressions and words cited on the article above.
the green-eyed monster - the be-all and end-all - a heart of gold - the world’s mine oyster gossip - bedazzled - grovel - sanctimonious
knock-knock jokes
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