Linguistic innovation

Shakespeare said it first: 10 words coined by the Bard

Rumor has it that William Shakespeare coined over 1,700 new English words or, at least, he was the first to put them in writing. If you have ever heard this fact, it might make you think of sophisticated-sounding terms like sanctimonious, equivocal, or radiance, all invented by the Bard. But many of the words we use in everyday life have Shakespearean origins, no matter how mundane they might seem. Let’s explore Shakespeare’s mark on our daily vocabulary.

First recorded in: A Midsummer Night's Dream

When Shakespeare first used the word ‘bedroom’ (around the 1580s), the common way of referring to a space intended for sleeping was ‘chamber’ or ‘bedchamber’. Why did the bard choose a different word then? He was not referring to what we now understand as a bedroom. In Act 2, Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Lysander asks Hermia for "bed-room", he is asking to lie next to her in the bed. The change from ‘space in the bed’ to ‘a room intended for sleeping’ occurred a few decades later, and the current use of 'bedroom' was set around the 1610s.

First recorded in: A Midsummer Night's Dream

We commonly use this word to describe the behavior or attitude of someone very confident and bold, and its first recorded use was not that different, though it bore a negative connotation. In Act 3, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck uses the word "swaggering" to mockingly describe the rustic manners of the actors rehearsing a play. A few years later, Shakespeare used "swaggerer" in Act 2, Scene 4 of Henry IV, Part 2, to describe the noisy, boastful, and brawling Pistol. Nowadays, ‘swagger’ is most of the time used with a positive connotation.

First recorded in: Coriolanus

If Shakespeare ever heard Kelly Clarkson singing "doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone," he would think the verse redundant, because he coined the word ‘lonely’ to mean ‘alone’. In Coriolanus (Act 4, Scene 1), the titular character says "I go alone, like to a lonely dragon, that his fen makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen". While Coriolanus used the word to compare himself with a solitary or isolated creature, ‘lonely’ evolved to mean ‘sad for lack of company’ in the early 19th century.

First recorded in: Macbeth

While linguists believe that ‘assassine’ was already in use in the 1570s, ‘assassination’ was first recorded in print around 1605 in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. A word of Arabic origin (from hassassin, ‘hashish-user’) that pejoratively described a group of mercenary killers, it had entered English through the Italian assassino. In Macbeth (Act 1, scene 7), the main character, while contemplating killing the king, refers to the potential murder as an ‘assassination’.

First recorded in: Troilus and Cressida

While in modern times we understand fashionable as ‘following the latest trends’, Shakespeare’s use was slightly different. In Act 3, scene 3 of Troilus and Cressida, the character Ulysses describes time as "a fashionable host", using the term to mean ‘popular’. While its meaning has changed slightly since then, the association with something popular remains.

First recorded in: Venus and Adonis

Was Shakespeare the first to record this word? Yes and no. In 1575, a scholar named William Patten had recorded the term ‘eye ball’, but Shakespeare was the first to use it as a single word in the 1593 poem Venus and Adonis, "Look in mine eyeballs, there thy beauty lies". How did people refer to the eyeball before that? They simply called it the ‘eye’.

First recorded in: Julius Caesar

Historians are certain about this one: the word ‘generous’ was not coined by Shakespeare, but he was responsible for making it popular and cementing its meaning as ‘freely giving’. From the Latin generosus (‘of noble birth’, ‘honorable’), the term had entered English through French with that original meaning. Shakespeare had used it as ‘honorable’ or ‘high ranking’ in Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1594), but he later used it in 1599's Julius Caesar (Act 2, scene 3) to describe the unselfishness and altruism of Caesar, who had made provisions for every Roman citizen in his will.

First recorded in: The Taming of the Shrew

Before Shakespeare’s time, English people certainly undressed, but they used words like unclothe, strip, or the Old English unscrydan to describe the action. The French dresser (´to arrange’, ‘put in order’) entered English in the 14th century, and shifted from general to personal order in the following century, eventually being used solely for clothes. Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1590) contains the first written record of the opposite verb, ‘to undress’, in its prologue: "Madam, undress you, and come now to bed."

First recorded in: Titus Andronicus

Although ‘vary’ (from the Latin variare, ‘to change or make different’) was already in use during the 1500s, Shakespeare is widely considered the first to record its adjectival form with the meaning ‘something that contains many different things’. In 1591’s Titus Andronicus (Act 3, scene 1), the character Marcus compares the voice of his now-mute niece Lavinia with a bird that sang "sweet varied notes".

First recorded in: Love’s Labour’s Lost

The Greek kritikos, meaning ‘able to judge’, was already used in English before Shakespeare’s time, but it referred to skilled judges or literary correctors. In Act 3, scene 1, of Love’s Labour’s Lost, Berowne, initially cynical about love but having fallen for Rosalind, describes his former self as "A critic, nay, a nightwatch constable", making this the first recorded use of the word to mean someone who points out flaws or looks upon others with contempt.

THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

All The Ways Ancient Greece Influenced The Modern World

Image: Aleksandar Pasaric

Ancient Greece stands as a beacon of civilization, a cradle of democracy, philosophy, arts, and more and it continues to blow our minds centuries later.

This captivating country has come a long, long way, and it has evolved over thousands of years influencing the world as we know it today in more than one way: political structures, sports events, scientific discoveries, everything we take for granted today was once a breakthrough made by this civilization.

Read on and delve into some of the most influential aspects of Ancient Greece!

Image: Arnaud Jaegers

Democracy is probably among the most important contributions from Ancient Greece. Even if it was exercised differently, the essence of democracy still remains.

According to its Greek roots, democracy means "government by the people" and it is a form of government by means of which the power is vested in the people who, directly or indirectly, choose their representatives through elections.

The difference between democracy then and democracy as we know it today, is that only a small portion of the population was allowed to participate. In Ancient Greece, the democratic government consisted of an assembly of 6,000 adult male citizens who voted on all kinds of issues. Similar to today’s system, a majority of votes were needed for laws to be passed.

Thanks to the evolution of societies and the system itself, men and women from all walks of life are allowed to vote and contribute to democratic governments today.

Image: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA

The institution of trial by jury is a cornerstone of modern legal systems, but it can be traced back to the democratic principles discussed before. This concept back then was not so different from today’s: it was a judicial process that aimed to provide a resolution to conflicts and justice in civil and criminal matters.

The jurors were chosen through a random allocation among the citizenry and they were in charge of hearing the evidence, assessing the testimonies, and determining the innocence (or not) of the accused.

This breakthrough shaped legal systems and principles that are still set in stone today and it remains a fundamental way to cherish the principles of justice and democracy.

Image: Bryan Turner

No Gods are honored in the present, but we still hold some of the traditions of this ancient sports event. The Olympic Games, which receive their name after the city they were held in, Olympia, were much more than just a sporting event back then.

First and foremost, the Olympics were a sacred ritual to honor Zeus, the God of the Sky and Thunder, they were held every four years and all kinds of (sometimes dangerous) sports were played. Swimming, gymnastics, and "pankration" a hybrid between wrestling and boxing, that could turn the place into a bloodbath in a matter of minutes.

Today, the Olympics aim to bring the nations together to feature their sports stars, but some traditions are still displayed: the olive leaf crowns, the opening and closing ceremonies, and, of course, the great lightning of the flame.

Image: kalhh

Zeus, Hercules, Hera, Hades, you probably know all of these names. That is because Greek mythology and its stories are some of the best-known in the whole world. Not only served us with legendary myths of every topic we can imagine, but it has inspired thousands of versions of those myths and their main figures.

Greek mythology inspired iconic pieces of art, like The Birth of Venus, a painting by Sandro Botticelli that depicts the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and desire.

On the other end of inspiration, Greek Mythology made it all the way to Disney movies, considering that their version of "Hercules" is one of the most famous adaptations of the myth.

The variety of universal topics dealt with in Greek mythology has permeated and there is no sign this will stop anytime soon.

Image: Pixabay

Ancient Greece contributed to medical advancements that represented a pivotal moment in the evolution of healthcare practices. Medicine as a discipline was already a common practice in places like China or Egypt, but the standardization of it can be attributed to the Greeks. In this sense, modern medicine is very similar to ancient medicine since it consists of a diagnosis and a consequent treatment.

Moreover, Hippocrates, a well-known physician of the time, made contributions in terms of work ethics. For this reason, he is known as the "Father of Medicine" and his name is still honored with the title of the oath made by doctors today, the Hippocratic Oath. We have him to thank for the categorization of diseases and the use of prognosis too.

Image: Josiah Lewis

The concept of beauty and proportion of the ancient Greeks is probably one of their most characteristic features. Even if we think of the time, the architectural achievements are a true testament to the artistic prowess of this civilization.

At the heart of this field, we will find Doric, Ionic, and Corinthians orders. Each of these had distinctive features and proportions and they all exemplified different things. The Parthenon, a masterpiece of Doric design, for example, was praised for its harmonious proportions and mind-blowing craftsmanship.

Temples, theaters, stadiums, agoras, and all kinds of civic buildings were just the beginning of architecture as we know it today. Together with democracy, the principles embodied in their view of architecture can be easily considered to keep inspiring us centuries later.

Image: Gabriella Clare Marino

Ancient Greece and philosophy are one and the same. And that is because the philosophical heritage of the Greeks was a true cradle of civilization.

This doesn’t mean they invented "thinking," but they surely came up with a name for the art of it. Philosophy comes from two Greek words, philos, which means "love" and sophia****, "wisdom." In essence, the discipline was in the quest for knowledge and tried to systematically answer existential questions.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the fathers of philosophy, responsible for laying the foundations of a comprehensive system. Their work has shaped thousands of studies and sciences around the world and throughout history offering deep insights on the human condition and reality itself. Academic knowledge as we know it today, especially in the Western world, wouldn’t exist were it not for these key figures.

Image: Aaron Burden

This ancient civilization has left a mark also through words and lexicon. Fields like mathematics, astronomy, medicine and, as we said, philosophy are full of terminology with roots in the Greek language.

The ancient Greek language is unparalleled in terms of precision and clarity, and its grammar had a profound impact on the development of linguistic theories and analysis of today. Needless to say, our understanding of language structure, morphology, and syntax wouldn’t be the same without the influence of the ancient Greeks.

In the same way, literary contributions were the way to preserve all these cultural elements we discuss today. Books like the Iliad and the Odyssey, which depict the Homeric epics, laid the groundwork for narrative conventions that are still present in Western literature today.

Image: Sean Robertson

Ancient Greek art stands today as a testament to their ceaseless pursuit of beauty, symmetry, and the human form. The art of this civilization encompassed a wide range of media including pottery, painting, and sculpture.

The most iconic features were the mastery of technique and, again, an acute sense of proportion which was an innovation back then. And quite impressive today when you come across any of their sculptures. In terms of topics, the Greeks were concerned with universal themes in all fields: human nature, beauty, and truth.

They have undeniably influenced all kinds of artistic movements throughout history and this is a legacy that continues to inspire artists and art lovers today.

Image: Pixabay

The naval innovations of the ancient Greeks are also a defining chapter in maritime history. At the forefront of this revolution stood the trireme warship which, as its name indicates, was powered by three rows of oarsmen arranged in tires. This ship boasted unparalleled speed and agility and enabled the Greeks to assert control over strategic points and trade routes in the Mediterranean.

Their expertise showcased a sense of innovation and they became pioneers in shipbuilding which ultimately shaped the evolution of sea voyages and traditions to come.