479 Unique Words & Pharses coined by Shakespeare
Of all poets and
playwrights in English, Shakespeare has been unique and
unrivalled. Shakespeare’s name shines blazingly in the broad-breasted
firmament of poetic drama. He was an embodiment of Genius for the language
itself – for his unique discovery of words and phrases which garnishes
and enriches the store house of English.
Shakespeare’s Unique Phrases
- All our yesterdays (Macbeth)
- All that glitters is not
gold (The Merchant of Venice)("glisters")
- All's well that ends
well (title)
- As good luck would have
it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- As merry as the day is
long (Much Ado About Nothing / King John)
- Bated breath (The
Merchant of Venice)
- Bag and baggage (As
You Like It / Winter's Tale)
- Bear a charmed life (Macbeth)
- Be-all and the end-all (Macbeth)
- Beggar all description (Antony
and Cleopatra)
- Better foot before
("best foot forward") (King John)
- The better part of valor is
discretion (I Henry IV; possibly already a known saying)
- In a better world than
this (As You Like It)
- Neither a borrower nor a
lender be (Hamlet)
- Brave new world (The
Tempest)
- Break the ice (The
Taming of the Shrew)
- Breathed his last (3
Henry VI)
- Brevity is the soul of
wit (Hamlet)
- Refuse to budge an inch (Measure
for Measure / Taming of the Shrew)
- Catch a cold (Cymbeline;
claimed but seems unlikely, seems to refer to bad weather)
- Cold comfort (The
Taming of the Shrew / King John)
- Conscience does make cowards
of us all (Hamlet)
- Come what come may
("come what may") (Macbeth)
- Comparisons are odorous (Much
Ado about Nothing)
- Crack of doom (Macbeth)
- Dead as a doornail (2
Henry VI)
- A dish fit for the gods (Julius
Caesar)
- Cry havoc and let slip the
dogs of war (Julius Caesar)
- Dog will have his day (Hamlet;
quoted earlier by Erasmus and Queen Elizabeth)
- Devil incarnate (Titus
Andronicus / Henry V)
- Eaten me out of house and
home (2 Henry IV)
- Elbow room (King
John; first attested 1540 according to Merriam-Webster)
- Farewell to all my
greatness (Henry VIII)
- Faint hearted (I
Henry VI)
- Fancy-free (Midsummer
Night's Dream)
- Fight till the last
gasp (I Henry VI)
- Flaming youth (Hamlet)
- Forever and a day (As
You Like It)
- For goodness' sake (Henry
VIII)
- Foregone conclusion (Othello)
- Full circle (King
Lear)
- The game is afoot (I
Henry IV)
- The game is up (Cymbeline)
- Give the devil his due (I
Henry IV)
- Good riddance (Troilus
and Cressida)
- Jealousy is the green-eyed
monster (Othello)
- It was Greek to me (Julius
Caesar)
- Heart of gold (Henry
V)
- Her infinite variety (Antony
and Cleopatra)
- 'Tis high time (The
Comedy of Errors)
- Hoist with his own
petard (Hamlet)
- Household words (Henry
V)
- A horse, a horse! My kingdom
for a horse! (Richard III)
- Ill wind which blows no man
to good (2 Henry IV)
- Improbable fiction (Twelfth
Night)
- In a pickle (The
Tempest)
- In my heart of hearts (Hamlet)
- In my mind's eye (Hamlet)
- Infinite space (Hamlet)
- Infirm of purpose (Macbeth)
- In my book of memory (I
Henry VI)
- It is but so-so(As You
Like It)
- It smells to heaven (Hamlet)
- Itching palm (Julius
Caesar)
- Kill with kindness (Taming
of the Shrew)
- Killing frost (Henry
VIII)
- Knit brow (The Rape
of Lucrece)
- Knock knock! Who's
there? (Macbeth)
- Laid on with a trowel (As
You Like It)
- Laughing stock (The
Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Laugh yourself into
stitches (Twelfth Night)
- Lean and hungry look (Julius
Caesar)
- Lie low (Much Ado
about Nothing)
- Live long day (Julius
Caesar)
- Love is blind (Merchant
of Venice)
- Men's evil manners live in
brass; their virtues we write in water (Henry VIII)
- Melted into thin air (The
Tempest)
- Though this be madness, yet
there is method in it ("There's a method to my madness") (Hamlet)
- Make a virtue of
necessity (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
- The Makings of(Henry VIII)
- Milk of human kindness (Macbeth)
- Ministering angel (Hamlet)
- Misery acquaints a man with
strange bedfellows (The Tempest)
- More honored in the breach
than in the observance (Hamlet)
- More in sorrow than in
anger (Hamlet)
- More sinned against than
sinning (King Lear)
- Much Ado About Nothing (title)
- Murder most foul (Hamlet)
- Naked truth (Love's
Labours Lost)
- Neither rhyme nor
reason (As You Like It)
- Not slept one wink (Cymbeline)
- Nothing in his life became
him like the leaving it (Macbeth)
- [Obvious] as a nose on a
man's face (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
- Once more into the
breach (Henry V)
- One fell swoop (Macbeth)
- One that loved not wisely but
too well (Othello)
- Time is out of joint (Hamlet)
- Out of the jaws of
death (Twelfth Night)
- Own flesh and blood (Hamlet)
- Star-crossed lovers (Romeo
and Juliet)
- Parting is such sweet
sorrow (Romeo and Juliet)
- What's past is prologue (The
Tempest)
- [What] a piece of work [is
man] (Hamlet)
- Pitched battle (Taming
of the Shrew)
- A plague on both your
houses (Romeo and Juliet)
- Play fast and loose (King
John)
- Pomp and circumstance (Othello)
- [A poor] thing, but mine own (As
You Like It)
- Pound of flesh (The
Merchant of Venice)
- Primrose path (Hamlet)
- Quality of mercy is not
strained (The Merchant of Venice)
- Salad days (Antony
and Cleopatra)
- Sea change (The
Tempest)
- Seen better days (As
You Like It? Timon of Athens?)
- Send packing (I Henry
IV)
- How sharper than the
serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child (King Lear)
- Shall I compare thee to a
summer's day (Sonnets)
- Make short shrift (Richard
III)
- Sick at heart (Hamlet)
- Snail paced (Troilus
and Cressida)
- Something in the wind (The
Comedy of Errors)
- Something wicked this way
comes (Macbeth)
- A sorry sight (Macbeth)
- Sound and fury (Macbeth)
- Spotless reputation (Richard
II)
- Stony hearted (I
Henry IV)
- Such stuff as dreams are made
on (The Tempest)
- Smooth runs the water where
the brook is deep ("Still waters run deep") (2 Henry VI)
- The short and the long of
it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Sweet are the uses of
adversity (As You Like It)
- Sweets to the sweet (Hamlet)
- Swift as a shadow (A
Midsummer Night's Dream
- Tedious as a twice-told
tale (King John)
- Set my teeth on edge (I
Henry IV)
- Tell truth and shame the
devil (1 Henry IV)
- Thereby hangs a tale (Othello;
in context, this seems to have been already in use)
- There's no such thing
(?) (Macbeth)
- There's the rub (Hamlet)
- This mortal coil (Hamlet)
- To gild refined gold, to
paint the lily ("to gild the lily") (King John)
- To thine own self be
true (Hamlet)
- Too much of a good
thing (As You Like It)
- Tower of strength (Richard
III)
- Towering passion (Hamlet)
- Trippingly on the
tongue (Hamlet)
- Truth will out (The
Merchant of Venice)
- Violent delights have violent
ends (Romeo and Juliet)
- Wear my heart upon my
sleeve (Othello)
- What the dickens (The
Merry Wives of Windsor)
- What's done is done (Macbeth)
- What's in a name? A rose by
any other name would smell as sweet. (Romeo and Juliet)
- What fools these mortals
be (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
- What the dickens (The
Merry Wives of Windsor)
- Wild-goose chase (Romeo
and Juliet)
- Wish is father to that
thought (2 Henry IV)
- Witching time of night (Hamlet)
- Working-day world (As
You Like It)
- The world's my oyster (Merry
Wives of Windsor)
- Yeoman's service (Hamlet)
Shakespeare’s Words
Coinage
- abstemious (The
Tempest -- a Latin word that meant "to abstain from alcoholic
drink" was generalized to sexual behavior as well)
o
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- academe (Love's
Labour's Lost; this is just an English form of "Academy", the
Greek for Plato's grove)
- accommodation (Othello)
- accused (n.) (Richard
II -- first known use as a noun, meaning person accused of a crime)
- addiction (Henry V /
Othello)
- admirable (several;
seems unlikely)
- advertising (adj.)(Measure
for Measure; in context, means "being attentive"; the noun was
already in use)
- aerial (Othello)
- alligator (Romeo and
Juliet; Spanish "aligarto" was already in use in English)
- amazement (13
instances; first known use as a noun)
- anchovy (I Henry IV;
first attestation in English of the Spanish word for dried edible fish)
- apostrophe
("apostrophas")(Love's Labour's Lost; seems to be a
well-known word already)
- arch-villain (Measure
for Measure / Timon of Athens)
- to arouse (2 Henry VI
/ Hamlet; "rouse" was the usual form)
- assassination (Macbeth;
"assassin" was already in use and derives from "hashish
eater")
- auspicious (several;
"auspice" was a Roman practice of fortune-telling by bird
flight)
- bachelorship (I Henry
VI)
- backing (I Henry VI;
this is just a pun on a known word)
- bandit (II Henry VI,
actually "bandetto", the first attestation in English of a
familiar Italian word for people "banned", i.e., outlaws)
- barefaced (in the sense of
"barefaced power") (Macbeth)
- baseless (in the sense of
fantasy without grounding in fact) (The Tempest)
- beached (several,
merely means "possessing a beach")
- bedazzled (The Taming
of the Shrew)
- bedroom (A Midsummer
Night's Dream, merely means a place to sleep on the ground)
- belongings (Measure
for Measure)
- to besmirch (Henry V)
- birthplace (Coriolanus;
first attestation)
- to blanket (King
Lear; first use as a verb)
- bloodstained (I Henry
IV)
- blusterer (A Lover's
Complaint)
- bold-faced (I Henry
VI)
- bottled (Richard III)
- bump (Romeo and
Juliet; first attestation of onomopoeic word)
- buzzer (Hamlet; means
gossipper)
- to cake (Timon of
Athens, first attestation as a verb)
- to castigate (Timon
of Athens)
- to cater (As You Like
It; from coetous, a buyer of provisions)
- clangor (3 Henry VI /
2 Henry IV)
- to champion (Macbeth;
first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to
challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight
for another)
- circumstantial (As
You Like It / Cymbeline; first attestation in the sense of
"indirect")
- cold-blooded (King
John; first use to mean "lack of emotion")
- coldhearted (Antony
and Cleopatra)
- compact (several;
seems to have been a common word)
- to comply (Othello)
- to compromise (The
Merchant of Venice, several of the histories; seems to have been already
in use)
- to cow (Macbeth; first
use in English of a Scandinavian verb)
- consanguineous (Twelfth
Night; "consanguinity" was already in use)
- control (n.) (Twelfth
Night)
- countless (Titus
Andronicus / Pericles)
- courtship (several,
seems unikely)
- critic (Love's
Labour's Lost; Latin term)
- critical (not in today's
sense) (Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream)
- cruelhearted (The Two
Gentlemen of Verona)
- Dalmatians (Cymbeline)
- dauntless (Macbeth)
- dawn (I Henry IV,
King John; first use as a noun, the standard had been "dawning")
- day's work (several,
must have been a common expression)
- deafening (II Henry
IV; in the sense of a noise that is loud but does not produce real deafness)
- to denote (several;
already a word in Latin)
- depository (???)
- discontent (Richard
III / Titus Andronicus; the verb was in use but this is the first
attestation as a noun)
- design (several,
seems unlikely)
- dexterously (Twelfth
Night)
- dialogue (several,
seems already familiar)
- disgraceful (I Henry
VI; means "not graceful")
- dishearten (Henry V)
- to dislocate (King
Lear, refers to anatomy)
- distasteful (Timon of
Athens)
- distracted (Hamlet /
Measure for Measure; seems possible)
- divest (Henry V /
King Lear; probably already in use as referring to a royal title)
- domineering (Love's
Labour's Lost; from a Dutch word)
- downstairs (I Henry
IV, supposedly first use as an adjective)
- droplet (Timon of
Athens)
- to drug (Macbeth;
first use as a verb)
- to dwindle (I Henry
IV / Macbeth, seems already familiar as a term for body wasting)
- to educate (Love's
Labour's Lost)
- to elbow (King Lear;
first use as a verb)
- embrace (I Henry VI;
first use as a noun)
- employer (Much Ado
about Nothing)
- employment (several,
obviously familiar)
- engagement (several,
seems simply the first attestation)
- to enmesh (Othello)
- to ensnare (Othello)
- enrapt (Troilus and
Cressida)
- enthroned (Antony and
Cleopatra)
- epileptic (King Lear;
first use as an adjective, though the noun was old)
- equivocal (Othello /
All's Well that Ends Well; first use as adjective, though the verb
"to equivocate" was familiar)
- eventful (As You Like
It)
- excitement (Hamlet /
Troilus and Cressida; both times as plural; first use as a noun)
- expedience (several,
supposedly first use as noun)
- exposure (several,
supposedly first use as noun)
- eyeball (The Tempest)
- eyedrops (II Henry
IV; means "tears")
- eyesore (The Taming
of the Shrew)
- fanged (Hamlet, first
attestation)
- farmhouse (The Merry
Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)
- far-off (several,
seems already familiar)
- fashionable (Timon of
Athens / Troilus and Cressida)
- fathomless (not today's
sense) (Troilus and Cressida)
- fitful (Macbeth)
- fixture (not current
sense) (Merry Wives of Windsor / Winter's Tale)
- flawed (King Lear;
first use as an adjective)
- flowery (A Midsummer
Night's Dream)
- foppish (King Lear)
- fortune-teller (The
Comedy of Errors)
- to forward (I Henry
IV; first use as a verb)
- foul-mouthed (several,
seems already familiar)
- freezing (Cymbeline)
- frugal (several;
"frugality" was already in common use)
- full-grown (Pericles)
- gallantry (Troilus
and Cressida)
- generous (several,
obviously already known)
- gloomy (several,
"to gloom" was a verb)
- glow (several; the
word had originally meant red-and-warm)
- gnarled (Measure for
Measure; alteration of knurled which was a standard word for bumpy)
- go-between (several,
seems familiar)
- to gossip (The Comedy
of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar
friends)
- gust (III Henry VI,
seems already familiar and was an Old Norse word)
- half-blooded (King
Lear)
- hint (Othello, first
use in today's sense)
- hob-nails (I Henry
IV, alleged; seems already familiar)
- hobnob (Twelfth
Night; older term was "hab, nab", and not in today's sense)
- homely (several,
seems already familiar)
- honey-tongued (Love's
Labour's Lost)
- hoodwinked (already
known from falconry)
- hostile (several,
seems like a word that is already familiar)
- hot-blooded (The
Merry Wives of Windsor / King Lear)
- housekeeping (The
Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)
- howl (several,
clearly familiar)
- to humor (Love's
Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)
- hunchbacked (can't
find)
- to hurry (Comedy of
Errors, first attestation as verb)
- ill-tempered (can't
find)
- immediacy (King Lear,
first use as noun)
- impartial (2 Henry
IV)
- to impede (Macbeth,
first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)
- import (several, and
not used in the modern sense)
- immediacy (King Lear,
first attestation as a noun)
- importantly (Cymbeline,
first attestation as an adverb)
- inaudible (All's Well
that Ends Well; "audible" was already in use)
- inauspicious (Romeo
and Juliet)
- indistinguishable (not in
today's sense)(Troilus and Cressida)
- inducement (several,
seems unlikely)
- investment (II Henry
IV, not in present sense)
- invitation (The Merry
Wives of Windsor; signifies "flirting")
- invulnerable King
John / Hamlet / The Tempest; first attestation for the negative;
Coriolanus has unvulnerable)
- jaded (several, seems
already a term of contempt)
- Judgement Day (I Henry
VI; usual term had been "Day of Judgement")
- juiced (Merry Wives
of Windsor; first attestation as an adjective)
- kissing (several,
first attestation of the participle, though surely not its first use)
- lackluster (As You
Like It)
- ladybird (Romeo and
Juliet)
- to lament (several,
seems already familiare)
- to lapse (several,
first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)
- to launder (first use
as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)
- laughable (The
Merchant of Venice)
- leaky (Antony and
Cleopatra / The Tempest)
- leapfrog (Henry V;
first attestation but seems unlikely as a coinage)
- lonely (several,
seems unlikely)
- long-legged (can't
find)
- love letter (can't
find)
- to lower (several,
seems already known)
- luggage (first use as
noun)
- lustrous (Twelfth
Night / All's Well that Ends Well)
- madcap (several,
attestation as adjective; the noun had become popular just before)
- majestic (several,
first use as adjective)
- majestically (I Henry
IV; first attestation as adverb)
- malignancy (Twelfth
Night, seems possible)
- manager (Love's
Labour's Lost / Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as noun)
- marketable (As You
Like It; first use as adjective)
- militarist (All's
Well that Ends Well)
- mimic (Midsummer
Night's Dream)
- misgiving (Julius
Caesar; first use as noun, though "to misgive" was in common
use)
- misplaced (several,
seems unlikely)
- to misquote (1 Henry
IV; not in the present sense)
- money's worth (Love's
Labours Lost)
- monumental (several,
seems unlikely)
- moonbeam (A Midsummer
Night's Dream)
- mortifying (Merchant
of Venice / Much Ado About Nothing
)
- motionless (Henry V)
- mountaineer (Cymbeline;
the sense is "hillbilly")
- multitudinous (Macbeth)
- neglect (several,
obviously already known)
- to negotiate (Much
Ado about Nothing / Twelfth Night; verb from the Latin)
- new-fallen (Venus and
Adonis / I Henry IV)
- new-fangled (Love's
Labour's Lost / As You Like It)
- nimble-footed (several,
seems already a familiar expression)
- noiseless (King Lear
/ All's Well that Ends Well)
- to numb (King Lear,
first attestation as a transitive verb)
- obscene (several;
straight from Latin)
- obsequiously (first
use of the adverb; comes from "obsequies", or funeral rites)
- outbreak (Hamlet,
first attestation as a noun)
- to outdare (I Henry
IV)
- to outgrow (can't
find)
- to outweigh (can't
find)
- over-cool (II Henry
IV)
- overgrowth (can't
find)
- over-ripened (II
Henry VI ;first-use of the familiar compound)
- over-weathered The
Merchant of Venice)
- overview (can't find)
- pageantry (Pericles
Prince of Tyre)
- pale-faced (A
Midsummer Night's Dream)
- to pander (several;
was already a proverb)
- pedant (several,
seems already in common use for a stuffy teacher)
- perplex (King John /
Cymbeline)
- perusal (Sonnets /
Hamlet; first use as a noun)
- to petition (Antony
and Cleopatra / Coriolanus; first use as a verb)
- pious (several, seems
very unlikely)
- posture (several,
seems known)
- premeditated (several;
first attestation of the adjective, though the noun was in use)
- priceless (???)
- Promethean (Othello /
Love's Labour's Lost)
- protester (not today's
sense) (Julius Caesar)
- published (2 Henry
VI)
- puking (As You Like
It)
- puppy-dog (King John
/ Henry V)
- on purpose (several;
seems very unlikely)
- quarrelsome (As You
Like It / Taming of the Shrew)
- questing (As You Like
It; first use of the gerund)
- in question (several,
seems already in use)
- radiance (several;
first use as noun)
- to rant (The Merry
Wives of Windsor / Hamlet; loan-word from Dutch or previously-unattested
English word?)
- rancorous (2 Henry
VI, Comedy of Errors, Richard III, all early plays, seems unlikely)
- raw-boned (I Henry
VI)
- reclusive (Much Ado
about Nothing; first use as adjective)
- reinforcement (Troilus
and Cressida / Coriolanus; seems already in use)
- reliance (???)
- remorseless (several,
first attestation of this form)
- reprieve (several,
obviously already in use)
- resolve (several,
obviously already in use)
- restoration (King
Lear)
- restraint (several,
seems already familiar)
- retirement (II Henry
IV; refers to military retreat; first use as noun)
- revolting (several,
obviously already familiar)
- to rival (King Lear;
first attestation as verb; noun was well-known)
- rival (Midsummer
Night's Dream; first attestation as adjective, noun was well-known)
- roadway (II Henry IV;
first attestation of the compound)
- rumination (As You
Like It; first use as noun)
- sacrificial (Timon of
Athens; not today's usage)
- sanctimonious (Measure
for Measure / Tempest)
- satisfying (Othello /
Cymbeline)
- savage (several; the
word was obviously already in use)
- savagery (King John /
Henry V; first use as this form)
- schoolboy (Julius
Caesar / Much Ado about Nothing)
- scrubbed (The
Merchant of Venice)
- scuffle (Antony and
Cleopatra; first use as noun, though the verb was familiar)
- seamy-side (Othello)
- to secure (II Henry
VI; first use as a verb; the adjective was well-known)
- shipwrecked (Pericles
Prince of Tyre, seems unlikely)
- shooting star (Richard
II; first known use of the phrase)
- shudder (Timon of
Athens; first use as a noun; verb already well-known)
- silk (alleged;
obviously not Shakespeare's)
- stocking (obviously
not Shakespeare's)
- silliness (Othello)
- skim milk (I Henry
IV; first use of the familiar term)
- to sneak (Measure for
Measure; supposed first use of the verb)
- soft-hearted (2 Henry
VI / 3 Henry VI; first use of the familiar phrase)
- spectacled (Coriolanus;
not in today's sense)
- splitting (II Henry
VI; first use as adjective)
- sportive (Richard III
/ Comedy of Errors / All's Well that Ends Well; supposed first use)
- to squabble (Othello;
supposed first use, as with "to swagger")
- stealthy (Macbeth;
first use as adjective)
- stillborn (can't
find, obviously not Shakespeare's)
- to submerge (Antony
and Cleopatra)
- successful (Titus
Andronicus, seems dubious)
- suffocating (Othello;
supposed first use as a descriptor)
- to sully (I Henry VI)
- superscript (Love's
Labour's Lost)
- to supervise (Love's
Labour's Lost; also Hamlet but not in today's sense)
- to swagger (II Henry
IV, others; in context this seems to be already a well-known word)
- switch (first use to
mean "twig")
- tardily (All's Well
that Ends Well; first use of adverb)
- tardiness (King Lear;
"tardy" as adjective was well-known)
- threateningly (All's
Well that Ends Well; first use of the adverb)
- tightly (The Merry
Wives of Windsor; first use as an adverb)
- time-honored (Richard
II)
- title page (can't
find; seems unlikely)
- to torture (several;
first use as a verb)
- traditional (Richard
III; first use as adjective)
- tranquil (Othello;
"tranquility" was an old word)
- transcendence (All's
Well that Ends Well; first attestation of the noun)
- tongue-tied (III
Henry VI / Julius Caesar / Troilus and Cressida; seems first attestation
of a phrase already in use)
- unaccommodated (King
Lear)
- unaware (Venus and
Adonis; first use as an adverb; the adjective was not yet in use)
- to unclog (Coriolanus,
first use as a negative)
- unappeased (Titus
Andronicus)
- unchanging (The
Merchant of Venice)
- unclaimed (As You
Like It; not in today's sense)
- uncomfortable (Romeo
and Juliet)
- to uncurl (???)
- to undervalue (The
Merchant of Venice)
- to undress (The
Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)
- unearthly (Winter's
Tale)
- uneducated (Love's
Labour's Lost, seems possible)
- ungoverned (Richard
III / King Lear)
- to unhand (Hamlet)
- unmitigated (Much Ado
about Nothing)
- unpublished (King
Lear; in the sense of "still unknown")
- unreal (Macbeth,
first use of the negative)
- unsolicited (Titus
Andronicus / Henry VIII; supposed first use of the form)
- unswayed (Richard
III; not in today's sense, but "is the sword unswung?")
- unwillingness (Richard
III / Richard II)
- upstairs (I Henry IV;
supposedly first use as an adjective)
- urging (Richard III /
Comedy of Errors; first attestation as a noun
- useful (several,
seems already familiar)
- varied (Love's
Labour's Lost, others)
- vastly (Rape of
Lucrece, not present sense)
- viewless (Measure for
Measure; means "invisible")
- vulnerable (Macbeth;
used in today's sense)
- watchdog (The
Tempest; first use of the phrase)
- well-behaved (The
Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)
- well-bred (II Henry
IV; first use of the familiar compound)
- well-read (I Henry
IV)
- whirligig (Twelfth
Night)
- to widen (???)
- widowed (Sonnet 97 /
Coriolanus; first use as an adjective)
- worn out (Romeo and
Juliet / 2 Henry IV; seems unlikely)
- worthless (III Henry
VI, several others; seems just a first attestation)
- yelping (I Henry VI;
first attestation of this adjectival form)
- zany (Love's Labour
Lost; simply a loan-word from Italian commedia dell'arte)
Don't forget to share your knowledge over the article in the comment box. Thanks and Good bye for now.
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