Linguistic innovation
According to Shakespeare, if you were lonely, you were alone
Published on August 9, 2026
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.
Bedroom
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.
Swagger
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.
Lonely
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.
Assassination
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’.
Fashionable
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.
Eyeball
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’.
Generous
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.
Undress
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."
Varied
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".
Critic
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.
