hello everyone welcome to the Laing
focused Channel and my name is Paul
students all over the english-speaking
world studies Shakespeare at school and
lots of them hate it
maybe because what they're reading feels
a little bit like a different language
and they can't understand it very well
the reason the plays and poems of
William Shakespeare aren't immediately
easy to understand is that they were
written in early modern English between
the years 1590 and 1613 Shakespeare
wrote at least 38 plays and over a
hundred and fifty poems both short and
long some of these are legendary
classics like Hamlet Macbeth and Romeo
and Juliet the works of William
Shakespeare made a tremendous impact on
Western culture and more importantly for
us here today on the English language of
course there are famous lines from
Shakespeare's plays like to be or not to
be that is the question but that's not
what I'm talking about I'm talking about
an extensive impact on the actual
vocabulary of English including many
words that we use every day and many
idiomatic expressions that are
frequently used it has commonly been
said that Shakespeare created 1,700
words that are commonly used in modern
English we have to be careful with that
number and the word created though there
are many words whose first appearance in
writing is in the works of William
Shakespeare but many of these words may
have been in colloquial use at the time
while Shakespeare was just the first to
use them in writing and some of these
1700 words actually appeared an earlier
but less known literature it might be
better to say that Shakespeare
popularized these words and helped
ensure their presence in modern English
as it developed it's hard to know
exactly which words he created himself
and which ones he didn't let's start
with idioms because we have a better
idea of which one's originated with
Shakespeare too much of a good thing
this idiom first appeared in the play as
you like it you might be a little
surprised by what thing refers to in the
original context of the play it's uh I
guess you could say its meaning is
somewhat adult the be-all and end-all
meaning the most impressive or important
in its category this idiom first
appeared in the play Macbeth Shakespeare
used it with a somewhat different
meaning all that is needed to end all
his problems Macbeth is considering a
SAS
King Duncan but wonders about the
additional problems it will cause come
full circle this first appeared in King
Lear to come full circle means that your
actions have gone through a series of
stages but you arrive back at your
starting point in some way to have the
makings of this is an idiom which means
to have the potential to become this
idiom comes from Henry the eighth she
had all the royal makings of a queen the
original meaning was a little different
though it meant that she possessed
things that gave her the appearance of a
queen not that she had the potential to
become a queen some idioms and
vocabulary introduced by Shakespeare
have evolved in meanings since then a
foregone conclusion a term referring to
a highly predictable outcome this is
first found in the play Othello nay this
was but his dream but this denoted a
foregone conclusion in other words what
happened in the dream most certainly
happened in real life and again what
happened in the dream was something
illicit of an adult nature neither rhyme
nor reason this is an idiom meaning that
something is completely lacking in logic
and order it first appeared in writing
in the comedy of errors but it's a
translation of a similar phrase in
French Selim knew hazel literally
without rhyme or reason in modern-day
English this idiom exists in a few
variations like without rhyme or reason
or no rhyme or reason for example
there's no rhyme or reason for his
behavior or he managed the office
without rhyme or reason one fell swoop
this is an idiom referring to an action
completed rapidly and all at once it
first appeared in Macbeth all my pretty
ones did you say all oh hell kite all
what all my pretty chickens and their
dam at one fell swoop Macduff is talking
about the murder of his family ordered
by Macbeth and uses the metaphor of a
dangerous bird swooping down to attack
the word fell is used here with its
archaic meaning of deadly as luck would
have it this is an idiom indicating that
something happened due to luck for
example I forgot my wallet at home but
as luck would have it there was a $20
bill in my pocket
this first appeared in The Merry Wives
of Windsor you shall hear as good luck
would have it comes in one mistress page
there are many more idioms like these
some of which are mainly used in
literary contexts and some of which are
commonly used in everyday language and
there are some which are still
attributed to Shakespeare even though
earlier appearances of the idiom are now
known such as it's Greek to me
more common these days in its variant
form it's all Greek to me meaning you
can't understand something at all
vocabulary the vocabulary introduced by
William Shakespeare into English
developed in a few different ways some
words were created by combining two
existing words the adverb upstairs is a
combination of up and stairs
similarly downstairs is a combination of
down plus stairs birthplace eyeball
watchdog Shakespeare introduced a number
of compound adjectives consisting of an
adjective and a past participle
cold-hearted cold-blooded well behaved
well bred well educated well-read
ill-tempered some words became used in
different word classes after English
lost much of its inflection in the
Middle English period it became easy for
words from one class such as noun
adjective or verb to be used in another
class some verbs became used as nouns
for example the word bump it first
appeared as a noun in the works of
William Shakespeare but it existed as a
verb before that similarly control when
used as a noun and hint when used as a
noun go between a noun referring to a
middleman or liaison this comes from the
verbal phrase go-between and some nouns
became used as verbs to torture this
first existed as a noun but Shakespeare
used it as a verb to cater this is a
verb meaning to supply food this came
from the middle english noun Couture
meaning buyer of provisions many new
words were created through adding
affixes to existing words successful
this adjective was formed from the noun
success by adding the suffix full
similarly useful is an adjective that
came from the noun use plus the suffix
full something is full of use amazement
the noun was formed from the verb amazed
with the addition of the suffix mint
mint creates a noun referring to an
action
or the state resulting from that action
countless this adjective comes from the
noun Celt
plus the suffix less the suffix less
indicates the absence of something so if
something's priceless it's too valuable
for you to buy there's no price employer
this is an agent noun a noun for the
doer of an action which was created by
adding the suffix ER to the verb employ
and related to that is employment for
this noun the suffix ment was added to
the verb the state that results from the
action employ fashionable this adjective
was created from the verb fashion plus
the suffix a bull
so it means able to be fashioned in
other words able to be given good style
majestic Shakespeare created the
adjective from the noun majesty plus the
adjective suffix kick to misquote the
prefix miss simply adds the meaning of
mistaken or wrong some words were even
created by removing affixes to impede
this verb was created by removing the
noun forming suffix meant from
impediment to negotiate this verb was
formed by removing the noun forming
suffix tion tion from negotiation some
existing words were given a new sense
cheap this word had already existed with
the meaning of low price but Shakespeare
used it with the sense of low quality or
vulgar flowery this word had already
existed as an adjective related to
flowers but William Shakespeare used it
with the new sense of richly embellished
speech for example using lots of fancy
adjectives some words were adopted from
French and Latin retirement this word
was taken from middle French Guatemala
originally meaning act of retreating and
act of withdrawing into seclusion
Shakespeare didn't use it with its most
common modern-day meaning of coming to
the end of your working life the word
generous was taken from French janila
but it originally had a different sense
from now meaning gentle noble or fair
some words are completely original
whether they originated in colloquial
speech or Shakespeare created them to
puke a colloquial word for vomit
to bet this word first appeared in the
slang of street criminals but in writing
it was first found in the works of
Shakespeare certain common collocations
were first found in the works of
Shakespeare for example on purpose the
something in question the thing we are
focusing on for example the document in
question something you might hear in a
formal legal or business context it's
quite amazing that one man who wrote a
collection of plays and poetry not only
inspired our literary tradition but also
had such a huge impact on the words we
use every day without even realizing it
English is now the de facto
international language and people all
around the world including people who
learn English as a second language or
foreign language use words and idioms
either created by William Shakespeare or
catapulted into the mainstream of modern
English through his works and it's
impressive on another level as well
it's a powerful reminder that by doing
things we're passionate about we can
potentially have a long-lasting impact
on the world around us the question of
the day which of the words and idioms in
the video do you use regularly did you
know that they originated in the works
of William Shakespeare leave your
answers in the comments down below a big
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the video and to everyone thank you for
watching and have a nice day
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