Glossario Shakespeariano
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William Shakespeare ha creato migliaia di parole che sono diventate parte del vocabolario inglese.
Ma non tutte le sue parole sono oggi di uso comune. Il presente glossario è stato creato dalla
casa editrice Cliff Notes e presenta la traduzione in inglese contemporaneo delle espressioni
presenti nei drammi del Bardo di Stratford. Provate a cercare i termini più strani e la loro
connotazione all’interno delle opere citate: scoprirete che il linguaggio di Shakespeare è ricco di
fantasia e di sfumature raffinate.
A
acknown: aware. [Othello]
adventure my discretion: risk my reputation. [The Tempest]
aery: nest. [Hamlet]
affectioned: affected, one who puts on airs. [Twelfth Night]
affections swayed: passions ruled. [Julius Caesar]
against the hair: or, as we say, "against the grain," a metaphor from brushing the hair of an
animal; the opposite way to which it lies. [Romeo and Juliet]
agnize: acknowledge. [Othello]
aimed so near: guessed as much. [Romeo and Juliet]
alarum'd: summoned to action. [Macbeth]
alike bewitched: each of them equally enchanted. [Romeo and Juliet]
all exercise: i.e., all their habitual activity. [The Tempest]
ambition: for the Elizabethans the word had the special meaning of unscrupulous pursuit of
power. [Julius Caesar]
amerce: punish. [Romeo and Juliet]
Anon, anon: In a moment! [Macbeth]
anters: caves. [Othello]
a patient list: the limits of patience. [Othello]
apparent prodigies: wonders that have appeared. [Julius Caesar]
argal: therefore. [Hamlet]
aroint thee: begone. [King Lear]
arrant: out-and-out. [Hamlet]
arras: tapestry, commonly hung in medieval castles from ceiling to floor for the prevention
of drafts. [Hamlet]
as thou list: any way you like. [The Tempest]
asquint: crookedly, falsely. [King Lear]
atomies: miniature beings. [Romeo and Juliet]
augurers: priests who interpreted omens. [Julius Caesar]
auspicious mistress: as a favorable influence. [King Lear]
B
bastinado: thrashing or cudgeling. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
batten: glut yourself. [Hamlet]
bawbling: small. [Twelfth Night]
bawcock: fine fellow. [Twelfth Night]
bawd: go-between a man and a woman. [Romeo and Juliet]
bear hard: bear a grudge against. [Julius Caesar]
beetles o'er: overhangs. [Hamlet]
beggarly account: very small number. [Romeo and Juliet]
behoveful: necessary. [Romeo and Juliet]
beldams: hags. [Macbeth]
belike: probably. [King Lear]
berattle: abuse. [Hamlet]
beshrew: a curse, plague upon. [Hamlet]; blame. [Romeo and Juliet] confound. [Twelfth
Night]
betid: happened. [The Tempest]
betimes: at once. [Julius Caesar]
betoken: indicate. [Hamlet]
bewray: reveal. [King Lear]
biddy: common name for a hen. [Twelfth Night]
bilboes: fetters. [Hamlet]
bird of night: the owl. [Julius Caesar]
bite my thumb: an insulting gesture in Shakespeare's time. [Romeo and Juliet]
bite thee by the ear: a term of endearment, not of assault. [Romeo and Juliet]
blasted: barren. [Macbeth]
blazon: proclamation (like a coat-of-arms, or possibly, a triumphant blast on the trumpet).
[Twelfth Night]
blinking idiot: that is, a fool's head. [The Merchant of Venice]
bodements: prophecies. [Macbeth]
bodkin: dagger. [Hamlet]
bombard: leather bottle. [The Tempest]
bootless: useless. [King Lear]; vainly. [Julius Caesar]
bosky: wooded. [The Tempest]
bowers: glades. [Twelfth Night]
brach: hound bitch. [King Lear]
brainsickly: foolishly. [Macbeth]
bray out: celebrate. [Hamlet]
break his day: fail to pay on the prescribed day. [The Merchant of Venice]
break with: break our news to, discuss. [Julius Caesar]
brief candle: life is compared to a candle flame. [Macbeth]
bring the device to the bar: bring the trick out into the open, to be judged (a flavor of the
law is in these words). [Twelfth Night]
brock: badger or skunk. [Twelfth Night]
broken sinews: racked nerves. [King Lear]
bruit: echo. [Hamlet]
buckler: shield. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
busky: bushy. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
but soft: slowly. [Julius Caesar]
C
caitiff: wretch (term of endearment). [Othello]
caliver: light kind of musket or harquebus introduced during the 16th century; it seems to
have been the lightest portable fire-arm, except the pistol, and was fired without a "rest."
[King Henry IV, Part 1]
callet: whore. [Othello]
cank'red, cankered: rusty, malignant (a canker is a bud-destroying worm; hence cancer).
[Romeo and Juliet]
cantons: love songs (cantos). [Twelfth Night]
cap-a-pe: fully armed from head to foot. [Hamlet]
carded: mixed with something base. The word was in use from 1590 to 1635 for mixing
different kinds of drink. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
carrion men: decaying corpses. [Julius Caesar]
carrions: living carcasses. [Julius Caesar]
cashiered: dismissed (but not necessarily without honor). [Othello]
casing: all-embracing. [Macbeth]
catch: musical round. [Twelfth Night]
cater-cousins: close friends. [The Merchant of Venice]
caterwauling: making a wailing noise like a cat. From Middle English cat + wawen, to wail
(an onomatopoetic word, whose sound echoes its meaning). [Twelfth Night]
cautel: craft. [Hamlet]
cerecloth: shroud. [The Merchant of Venice]
cerements: winding-sheets, shroud. [Hamlet]
certes: assuredly. [Othello]
chafing with: beating on. [Julius Caesar]
chalked forth: indicated the direction. [The Tempest]
champain: flat, open country. [Twelfth Night]
changed eyes: fallen in love; the phrase, arising from the exchange of amorous glances,
was a common Elizabethan one. [The Tempest]
chaps: jaws. [Macbeth]
charactery: what is written upon, i.e., the meaning. [Julius Caesar]
chariest: most modest and virtuous. [Hamlet]
charmingly: for the Elizabethans the word "charm" usually carried a reference to magic, as
it does here. [The Tempest]
checking at: swerving aside from. [Hamlet]
cheveril glove: kid leather (easily stretchable). [Twelfth Night]
chinks: cash (from the clatter of the coins). [Romeo and Juliet]
chop-logic: one who bandies logic; one who exchanges trivial points of logic. [Romeo and
Juliet]
chopt: chapped. [Julius Caesar]
chough: jackdaw (i.e., a chatterer). [Hamlet]
Christian cursy: Christian charity. [The Merchant of Venice]
civet: perfume. [King Lear]
clepe: call. [Hamlet]; "clept." [Macbeth]
climatures: regions. [Hamlet]
clodpole: blockhead. [Twelfth Night]
cobbler: this means bungler as well as shoemaker. [Julius Caesar]
cockatrices: mythological creatures, half serpent, half cockerel, famed for killing at a glance.
[Twelfth Night]
collied: darkened. [Othello]
collier: coal-miner. [Twelfth Night]
Colossus: the huge statue of Apollo at the harbour of Rhodes. It was erroneously thought
that its legs spanned the harbour entrance. [Julius Caesar]
colour: excuse. [Julius Caesar]
common proof: common experience. [Julius Caesar]
compass: bring about. [Twelfth Night]
compliment extern: outward appearance. [Othello]
comptible: sensitive. [Twelfth Night]
concave shores: overhanging banks. [Julius Caesar]
conceit: imaginings, nightmares. [Romeo and Juliet]
condition: constitution, state of mind. [Julius Caesar]
contagious blastments: destructive blights. [Hamlet]
contemned love: love that is given but not returned. [Twelfth Night]
continuate: uninterrupted. [Othello]
contracted bachelors: young men who are engaged to be married and whose banns are
being called in church. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
corky: dry with age. [King Lear]
coronets: small crown, or perhaps a laurel wreath. [Julius Caesar]
corse: body. [Hamlet]; corpse. [Romeo and Juliet]
court of guard: headquarters. [Othello]
coxcomb: a fool's cap, often with a cock's comb attached to the top. [King Lear]
coystrill: knave or base fellow. [Twelfth Night]
cozen: cheat. [The Merchant of Venice]
cozier: cobbler. [Twelfth Night]
crickets cry: thought of as an omen of death. [Macbeth]
crisped: curly. [The Merchant of Venice]
crochets: whims. [Romeo and Juliet]
crossed: opposed. [Julius Caesar]
crowner: coroner (one who conducts inquests). [Twelfth Night]
crush a cup: a common colloquial expression in Elizabethan English comparable to "crack
open a bottle." [Romeo and Juliet]
cry you mercy: beg your pardon. [Othello]
cubiculo: room, chamber. [Twelfth Night]
cullionly barbermonger: rascal who goes too often to the barber. [King Lear]
cursy: curtsey, bow. [The Merchant of Venice]
cut-purse: thief. [Hamlet]
D
dallying: fondling one another. [Hamlet]
date is out, the: it is no longer the fashion. [Romeo and Juliet]
dateless: everlasting. [Romeo and Juliet]
daws: jackdaws, or fools. [Othello]
dear account: sad reckoning. In Elizabethan English the word "dear" intensified the meaning
-- you could have a "dear friend" and a "dear enemy." [Romeo and Juliet]
death's-head: skull. [The Merchant of Venice]
denotement: careful observation. [Othello]
dilate: tell fully. [Othello]
dismount thy tuck: take thy rapier out of its scabbard or sheath. [Twelfth Night]
dissemble: deceive. [Twelfth Night]
distaff: the spinning staff, and hence symbol of the woman. [King Lear]
distemperature: illness or other physical disorder. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
do my duties: voice my loyalty. [Othello]
dog at: clever at. [Twelfth Night]
doit: cheap coin. [The Merchant of Venice]
dormouse valour: small amount of bravery. [Twelfth Night]
doublet: lined jacket. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
doves: the Chariot of Venus was drawn by doves, which were sacred to her. [Romeo and
Juliet]
down-gyved: fallen, like shackles, about the ankles. [Hamlet]
drabbing: associating with prostitutes. [Hamlet]
dram: small amount. [Twelfth Night]
dropping fire: thunderbolts. [Julius Caesar]
drops of sorrow: tears. [Macbeth]
drossy: frivolous. [Hamlet]
dry sorrow (drinks our blood): another old belief, that sorrow caused people to go pale
through lack of blood. [Romeo and Juliet]
dudgeon: handle. [Macbeth]
dunnest: darkest. [Macbeth]
dun's the mouse: a slang Elizabethan phrase meaning "Keep quiet." [Romeo and Juliet]
dupp'd: opened. [Hamlet]
dwell on form: do the proper thing (in the formal, conventional way). [Romeo and Juliet]
E
eanlings: lambs. [The Merchant of Venice]
Egyptian: gypsy. [Othello]
elflocks: when dirty hair became clotted together it was superstitiously put down to elves,
hence "elflocks." [Romeo and Juliet]
eliads: from the French "oeillades," amorous glances. [King Lear]
Elysium: paradise (Illyria). [Twelfth Night]
embowell'd: embalmed. [King Henry IV, Part 1]
encave: hide. [Othello]
enchafed: angry. [Othello]
endues: brings. [Othello]
engluts: devours. [Othello]
ensteeped: submerged. [Othello]
envy: hatred. [The Tempest]; malice. [Julius Caesar]
enwheel: encompass. [Othello]
erns: grieves. [Julius Caesar]
Ethiop's: Negro, as used by Shakespeare, not Ethiopian in its narrower sense. [Romeo and
Juliet]
extravagant and erring: vagrant and wandering (both used in original Latin sense, a
common device of Shakespeare). [Hamlet]
extremities: extremes of power. [Julius Caesar]
eyeless: invisible. [King Lear]
eyes' windows: eyelids (shutters). [Romeo and Juliet]
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