William Shakespeare influenced the English language more than any other individual. He coined new words and phrases, used old words in new ways, and helped shape the language that we speak today.
Shakespearean vocabulary
Shakespeare endures today not only in schools and theaters but also in familiar sayings from our everyday speech, although sometimes the context is a little different from what you may expect. For example, in Twelfth Night, Olivia tells Viola to leave:
Olivia. There lies your way, due west.
Viola. Then westward ho! (3.1.135)
Shakespeare had a large vocabulary — most scholars agree that his vocabulary was around 30,000 words — and he freely extended it when he felt the need. From anchovy to zany, Shakespeare invented countless words, used old words in new ways, and had fun with the English language. Our reliance on his nerve fills us with amazement. Did you ever dislocate a joint and use obscene words, or were you tranquil? If so, thank Shakespeare because the italicized words are ones he invented or first used in a new way. He often used verbs as nouns and nouns as verbs. For example, when the Duke of Vienna takes a leave of absence in Measure for Measure, he appoints Angelo as his deputy. Angelo gets a little carried away with the job, and someone comments that "Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence" (3.2.91). Before Shakespeare wrote "after dawn / Doth rise" (Henry V 4.1.270–71), the word dawn was used only as a verb, not as a noun.
A catalog of the words and phrases that appear first in Shakespeare's plays would go on for pages. Many other words and phrases that Shakespeare used may have been invented by others, but Shakespeare heard them, liked them, and used them in his plays. They survived in his plays, and we have Shakespeare to thank for preserving them.
 | Perhaps Shakespeare's greatest gift to the English language was his love of common speech. Latin was the language of scholarship and erudition. Shakespeare certainly studied Latin in school, and he frequently used Latin quotes and classical Latin stories and sources. Sometimes, his lovers use flowery, poetic speech of the educated English society, but he was also a master of the plain speech of the common person. The shepherd Corin describes his philosophy: |
I know the more one sickens the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends; that the property of rain is to wet and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night is the lack of the sun. (As You Like It 3.2.22–27)
Corin's speech is as clear and simple today as it was 400 years ago. Shakespeare also enjoyed playing games with words. In Love's Labour's Lost, for example, Lord Berowne claims to reject elaborate speech in favor of simplicity, but he can't resist images of expensive cloth and other "figures pedantical":
Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affection, Figures pedantical; these summer flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forswear them; and I here protest, By this white glove (how white the hand, God knows), Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd In russet yeas and honest kersey noes. (5.2.406–13)
From "taffeta phrases" to everyday speech, Shakespeare continues to influence our language and our world. The more you watch for allusions to Shakespeare and his work, the more you will find them — in newspapers, books, films, and television shows and, of course, onstage.
Ten everyday phrases from Shakespeare
Many expressions that we use every day originated in Shakespeare's plays. This section lists ten such phrases. As you read the plays, see if you can find others.
Miranda. How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in 't! (The Tempest 5.1.183–84)
Troilus. When many times the captive Grecian falls
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword,
You bid them rise, and live.
Hector. O, 'tis fair play. (Troilus and Cressida 5.3.40–43)
Iago. Nay, this was but his dream.
Othello. But this denoted a foregone conclusion. (Othello 3.3.429–30)
Gloucester. Good my friends, consider; you are my guests.
Do me no foul play, friends. (King Lear 3.7.30–31)
Prospero. Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air. (The Tempest 4.1.148–50)
Casca. But those that understood him smil'd at one another, and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. (Julius Caesar 1.2.278–80)
Marullus. Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. (Julius Caesar 1.1.38–43)
Macduff. Did you say all? — O Hell-kite! — All?
What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell swoop? (Macbeth 4.3.217–19)
Falstaff. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies; and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. (Merry Wives of Windsor 5.5.122–27)
Rosalind. Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come sister, you shall be the priest and marry us. (As You Like It 4.1.116–18)
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