{"id":19112,"date":"2024-04-03T17:11:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T09:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/?p=19112"},"modified":"2024-04-05T11:58:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T03:58:42","slug":"shakespeare-the-wordsmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/2024\/04\/shakespeare-the-wordsmith\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare the Wordsmith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whatever your level of exposure to the plays and poems of William Shakespeare, you are using his language every day, perhaps without even knowing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During his lifetime, Shakespeare coined thousands of words, over 300 using the prefix \u2018un-\u2019 alone; here are a few examples of words we use every day that we wouldn\u2019t have without the Bard:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unchanging<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018But that thy face is, vizard-like, unchanging,\u2019 <\/span>Henry VI, Part III<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Uneducated<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018…his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather, unlettered, or ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,\u201d <\/span>Love’s Labour’s Lost<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Unhelpful<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimm’d eyes,\u2019 <\/span>Henry VI, Part II<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Unreal<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!\u2019 <\/span>Macbeth<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Undone<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018I am undone: there is no living, none,\u2019 <\/span>All\u2019s Well That Ends Well<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t you try making up your own words just like Shakespeare? Add \u2018un-\u2019 in front of any present participle (e.g. reading), past participle (e.g. read), or adjective (e.g. written). Check what you\u2019ve created against a dictionary. If it\u2019s in there, then Shakespeare probably beat you to it. If not, decide what your word means, and see if you can make it spread as effectively as Shakespeare did with his new words.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although adding an \u2018un\u2019 was the playwright\u2019s signature move, Shakespeare also coined words with other prefixes like \u2018well-\u2019, \u2018in-\u2019 and \u2018dis-\u2019. Not content with just prefixes, he also made up hundreds of new words with suffixes like \u2018-less\u2019, \u2018-ment\u2019, \u2018-able\u2019 and \u2018-ful\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have you ever experienced <\/span>excitement<\/b>, felt<\/span> useless<\/b> or found something <\/span>laughable<\/b>? All the words in bold were invented by William Shakespeare.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Look at the following sentence, and think about how you\u2019d communicate the same idea without the bolded words: every <\/span>rose-cheeked<\/b> schoolboy<\/b> has found Shakespeare\u2019s use of <\/span>obscene<\/b> language <\/span>satisfying,<\/b> though this is in danger of being <\/span>scrubbed<\/b> on purpose <\/b>from curricula worldwide in a profound act of <\/span>silliness<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

People have <\/span>ranted<\/b> for centuries about the importance of Shakespeare, and you should now understand why. Hopefully, you haven\u2019t found the level of detail in this article <\/span>overpowering <\/b>or<\/span> distasteful<\/b>. I always stare in <\/span>amazement <\/b>when people say studying Shakespeare is <\/span>unhelpful<\/b>.<\/span> What a baseless <\/b>and<\/span> bare-faced <\/b>accusation!<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Consider this your <\/span>invitation<\/b> to join the club of Shakespeare fans. Learning and using new words is all in an <\/span>eventful<\/b> day\u2019s-work<\/b> for a <\/span>well-read<\/b> member.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more tips from our teaching team on succeeding in writing and everything else, see the rest of this article series here<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever your level of exposure to the plays and poems of William Shakespeare, you are using his language every day, perhaps without even knowing.   During his lifetime, Shakespeare coined thousands of words, over 300 using the prefix \u2018un-\u2019 alone; here are a few examples of words we use every day that we wouldn\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":19131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[903],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19132,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19112\/revisions\/19132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}