GIGO: words unreadable aloud

Shakespeare and Vocabulary

Tony Bowden linked to b-may's entry about Shakespeare, pointing out "... all the turns of phrase and common references [MacBeth] has added to even today's everyday conversation"; both he and Tony suggested a few more that they'd like to see in wider usage.

I first saw the following amazing paragraph in the book "The Story of English" by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. Note that no one knows how many of the words were actually invented by Shakespeare, as some websites out there claim. (Certainly some of the phrases were his.) I'm sure that many of the words were commonly used at the time, and that he was the first person to write down in any enduring way.

Still, it is an astounding quote. Here's what the "Story of English" had to say about it:

Shakespeare put the vernacular to work and showed those who came after what could be done with it. He filled a universe with words. Accomodation, assassination, dexterously, dislocate, indistinguishable, obscene, pedant, premeditated, reliance, and submerged are just a handful of the words that make their first appearance in the Folio. Shakespeare's impact on the patterns and stuff of everyday English speech has been memorably expressed by the English journalist Bernard Levin:
If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise — why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that your are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then — to give the devil his due — if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then — by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts — it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

I find it amusing how some of the phrases have in some sense outlived the very words that make them up: "Tut"? "shrift"? And how many of you have ever actually seen a "door-nail"?
9:57:19 PM comment/