I have read that Shakespeare invented over 1700 words, many of which are in common usage today. How do we know he invented them? Couldn’t they have been part of a local language or “fad” words with a short lifeitme?
“Fad” words…not bloody likely. Shakespeare wrote mosy of his plays while he was living in London, in the middle of the most productive literary period in English history. If the words had been part of the vernacular, someone, somewhere, in something, would have used them as well. But they show up in Shakespeare’s plays, and nowhere else until later. Occam’s razor demands that we used the least complicated answer, ie Shakespeare invented them. Not saying that one or two of them were “borrowed” by will, but all of them? Don’t think so. 
well, i am no literature major, nor am I a big historian but here is a scenario…
if in a few hundred years someone decided to trace the use of popular words that originated in the black culture they would most notably give tons of credit to Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Puff Daddy and other rappers for “inventing” the majority of these words. Why? Because their work is documented. But what about the kids in the ghetto that undoubtedly inspired much of it?
I know this is a semi weak example but I am only pointing out the worthlessness of crediting someone with the “invention” of a word. Isn’t it enough to say he/she was the first person to sing it, write it down or to be “documented” as having said it?
This question still isn’t completely settled: According the the Oxford English Dictionary Revision Programme, “Did the great authors such as Shakespeare and Chaucer really invent as many new words as they are given credit for, or does new information now show that many of these words have earlier, popular, origins?”
Fair enough, I am willing to believe that. Here’s another question: How many of Shakespeare’s comtemporaries have “invented” words in their literature? Was it a popular thing to do at the time?
Yes, many of them do - it was all part of the literary playfulness expected of poets and playwrights. Note however that few of these words were entirely new. Some were Latinisms intended to show off the writer’s Classical erudition; others were existing English words modified in unusual and unexpected ways.
The thing is that, even if Shakespeare ‘invented’ none of these words, his use of them is still remarkable, because the point is that he would remain the first person known to have used particular words far more than any of his contemporaries. To assume that he was just using existing words only means that the other poets and playwrights were far more limited in their use of the language that already existed. Either way, Shakespeare remains the better and more interesting writer, whether judged by their standards or by ours.
(The continuing revision of the OED will no doubt find earlier examples of some of the words currently attributed to Shakespeare, but the same will also be true for some of the words attributed to other writers. No one expects Shakespeare to lose his ‘lead’.)
i didn’t know that shakespeare is said to have invented hundreds of words, although i knew that many common phrases used casually today are direct quotes from his plays. could someone include some examples of the words, or some cites for further reading? also, it’s hard to imagine that these words could have come out of thin air. how could the audience be sure of what they were supposed to mean, even heard in context? imagine that the characters on a tv show started tossing in words from a language you don’t speak. wouldn’t that distract you from the events of the show? would a master playwright do that to his audience?
Could you start using the Shift key?
People learn new words and phrases from popular entertainment all the time.
Some words first recorded in works by Shakespeare
Sometimes all he wanted to do was to sound impressive, with the audience understanding the gist of what was meant rather than the precise meaning of every word. Not that the meanings of ‘birthplace’, ‘majestic’ or ‘undress’ would have been that difficult to work out.
Although the book covers a lot more than just Shakespeare and Chaucer’s word contributions to the english language, I highly recomment you all read “The Mother Tonge: English and how it got that way” by Bill Bryson. It’s mostly anecdotes about bizarre words and origins, but it’s really interesting to see how words evolved, were borrowed from other languages, or were straight out invented.
Regarding Shakespeare and other authors, Bryson mentions the words attributed to them but also lists some words that they “invented” that just didn’t make it:
I’m only about halfway through the book - I find it a bit of a slow read as it gets somewhat overwhelming to be thinking about english descriptions of english words!
An aside: In the section about the spelling of words, Bryson gives this little test:
Another source of “made up” words!
“Supercede” is spelled correctly, although it IS a variant of supersede.
I am concerned that crediting Old Will for all those words is just a variation of the True UFO Believers Argument:
Say a lot of UFO sightings are investigated. 90% are found to be mundane things. Planes, planets, stars, etc. True UFO Believers declare the remaining 10% must be real alien spaceships. But in reality, the remaining 10% are just like the other 90%, there merely wasn’t enough evidence to decide which.
So if you took a long list of Elizabethan English words, found 90%* of them were also used outside Shakespeare, can you really claim the remaining 10% are “real” Shakespeare inventions? Probably not.
*Made up percentage.
I’d accept that, and in fact, I do accept that for some of the words. But literary invention is very well-known, and as APB noted, happens all the time. Add to that the words, noted by Bryson, that didn’t catch on, and the case is fairly persuasive.
At least three of those words are not English, they are foreign words adopted into English. So the difficulty of spelling in English does not apply.
Once a foreign word is used by native speakers of English, and not thought of as foreign, and follows English phonetic rules, it is an English word, just as much as any other.
in an age when buying books was something you had to be fairly wealthy to do, it’s likely that much of the evolution of the language remained undocumented. Most people, if they could read at all, would have no more then the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.