National Shakespeare Day
William Shakespeare was one of
England’s greatest poets and
dramatists.
People all around the globe
celebrate National Shakespeare
Day on April 23rd each year.
National Shakespeare Day –
Did you know…
The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare.
Shakespeare invented over 1700 of our common words by
changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives,
connecting words never before used together, adding
prefixes and suffixes, and devising wholly original words.
Fancy a hobnob you greeneyed madcap?
Words Shakespeare Invented
Below is a list of a few of the words Shakespeare invented –
how many do you recognise?
academe
arouse
beached
barefaced
caked
compromise
dawn
dwindle
exposure
frugal
gust
impartial
laughable
madcap
monumental
obscene
panders
rant
skim milk
tranquil
worthless
accused
assassination
besmirch
blushing
cater
courtship
deafening
epileptic
eyeball
generous
hint
invulnerable
lonely
majestic
moonbeam
obsequiously
pedant
remorseless
submerge
undress
zany
addiction
backing
birthplace
bet
champion
countless
discontent
equivocal
fashionable
gloomy
hobnob
jaded
lower
marketable
mountaineer
ode
premeditated
savagery
summit
unreal
gnarled
advertising
bandit
blanket
bump
circumstantial
critic
dishearten
elbow
fixture
gossip
hurried
label
luggage
metamorphize
negotiate
olympian
puking
scuffle
swagger
varied
grovel
amazement
bedroom
bloodstained
buzzer
cold-blooded
dauntless
drugged
excitement
flawed
green-eyed
impede
lackluster
lustrous
mimic
noiseless
outbreak
radiance
secure
torture
vaulting
Shakespeare could also write a good insult or twenty!
Thou art a beslubbered, pebbling, churlish
clotpole, a beef-witted, gleekng bum-bailey, a
gorbellied, mewling hedge born, onion-eyed,
fustilarian, cob loaf, flap-eared, knotty-pated
measle, you ruttish, reeking, coxcomb, you
hugger-mugger moldwarp, you pottle-deep,
maggot pie lewdster, yeasty, tickle-brained,
whey-faced, nut-hook skainsmate?
Watch this insulting video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zchaqy2AlnQ
Create your own Shakespearian insult!
Use the table below to create you own insult.
Simply start your sentence with ‘thou’ and pick a word from each column!
What are you waiting for thou infectious onion-eyed codpiece!
bootless
clouted
dissembling
droning
errant
frothy
gleeking
goatish
infectious
jarring
loggerheaded
puking
rank
ruttish
saucy
spongy
unmuzzled
vain
villainous
weedy
beetle-headed
clay-brained
dizzy-eyed
doghearted
dread-bolted
fen-sucked
flap-mouthed
fly-bitten
full-gorged
guts-griping
half-faced
knotty-pated
onion-eyed
pox-marked
reeling-ripe
rude-growing
sheep-biting
spur-galled
tardy-gaited
unchin-snouted
bladder
bum-bailey
coxcomb
codpiece
death-token
flirt-gill
foot-licker
fustilarian
haggard
harpy
hedge-pig
malt-worm
minnow
mumble-news
nut-hook
pignut
ratsbane
scut
strumpet
whey-face