The first book ever to focus on Shakespeare's coinages. Discover terms and meanings still used today. Includes fun quizzes on Shakespearean trivia. A must for Bardophiles everywhere!
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Coined by Shakespeare has an undeclared--a sort of subconscious--theme, because in the end, it's a witty narrative about the way words come to shape concepts and concepts come to find new words to bring them to life.... For anyone who likes words, Shakespeare or history, it's not only useful, it's fun. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Howard Shapiro
About the Author
For the past forty years, R.R. Blechman has been a major force in the field of illustration. Twenty years ago he branched into animation, and he now pursues a dual career as illustrator and director of the New York-based studio The Ink Tank. The studio has produced award-winning animation for such clients as Hershey's, MTV, Nickelodeon, the Children's Television Workshop, and the Cartoon Network. R.O. Blechman's work has appeared numerous times on the covers and in the pages of The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Book Review. He is the author and illustrator of several books, the most recent of which are The Life of Saint Nicholas and The Book of Jonah. In 1983 he was named "Illustrator of the Year" by Adweek.
Stanley Malless is an assistant professor of education at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he teaches courses in history, philosophy, and psychology of education. He holds undergraduate degrees in English and French, and M.A. in 16th-17th century British literature, and a Ph.D. in education. Malless recently appeared in a Simpson College production of Macbeth, and he has taught Shakespeare at both the secondary and college level. He is the co-author of The Elements of English.
Jeffrey McQuain's fascination with Shakespeare began with college performances of scenes from Julius Caesar and Richard II. For the past 14 years, he served as the researcher for William Safire's on Language column in The New York Times Magazines. The author of Power Language and co-author of The Elements of English, he has also written an internationally syndicated column about words. He completed his dissertation on Shakespeare and Chaucer, and has a Ph. D. in Literary Studies from American University in Washington, D.C. He lives in Potomac, Maryland.
Stanley Malless is an assistant professor of education at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he teaches courses in history, philosophy, and psychology of education. He holds undergraduate degrees in English and French, and M.A. in 16th-17th century British literature, and a Ph.D. in education. Malless recently appeared in a Simpson College production of Macbeth, and he has taught Shakespeare at both the secondary and college level. He is the co-author of The Elements of English.
Jeffrey McQuain's fascination with Shakespeare began with college performances of scenes from Julius Caesar and Richard II. For the past 14 years, he served as the researcher for William Safire's on Language column in The New York Times Magazines. The author of Power Language and co-author of The Elements of English, he has also written an internationally syndicated column about words. He completed his dissertation on Shakespeare and Chaucer, and has a Ph. D. in Literary Studies from American University in Washington, D.C. He lives in Potomac, Maryland.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
According to various sources approximately 1531 words were first coined by Shakespeare. The leading resource on this appears be the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which, if you leaf through it, you will find highlighted entries, showing who first used these particular words and quoting the play, poem or book where they were used.
By comparison this book, 274 pages long is composed of chapters on each letter, including quizzes, some pictures, an estimated coverage of one and a half words per page, with examples of usage and sometimes ontology, and is a somewhat light hearted look at the use of language, covering 450 to 490 words.
You may not know for example that the following words, according to the authors were coined by Shakespeare:
Accused, addiction, advertising, auspicious, bandit, baseless, bet, buzzer, courtship, dawn, denote, design, elbow, embrace, engagement, eyeball, fashionable, film, flawed, forward, generous, gloomy, glow, go-between, green-eyed (as in monster), gust, high-pitched (Rape of Lucrece), hint, hush, impede, inaudible, investment, jet, jig, kickshaw, kissing (really?), lackluster, lapse, launder, lonely, lower, luggage, manager, marketable, metamorphise, misquote, monumental, mimic, negotiate, noiseless, numb.
Obscene, ode, outbreak, Olympian, pageantry, pedant, perusal, premeditated, promethean, radiance, rant,roadway, reclusive, remorseless, retirement, rival, roadway,rumination, sacrificial, sanctimonious, scuffle, secure, shooting star, stealthy, switch, splitting, swagger, tardiness, threatingly, torture (2 Henry VI), tranquil, transcendence, unaware (V &A), unclog, undress (TTS), unmitigated, unreal, urging, varied, vaulting, watchdog,, weel-behaved, widen, widowed, wild-goose chase (RJ), worm-hole (RL), worthless, yelping (1H IV), yoking (VA), zany.
If you read this book I think you will find it both informative, and entertaining. Why I do not give it a higher number of stars is that I was hoping for a book that includes all the words, so for me though the subject is interesting this book has a limited appeal and value.
I have researched several of the words published as originated by Shakespeare, in the Oxford edition, and elsewhere. Some words such as jet mentioned above were previously used by Greene, some coined by Marlowe include faceless, light-borne, lineage, sweet-flowering, undecked, so there are some errors in attribution. Undoubtedly words such as kissing must have existed before they were first used in a Shakespeare play or poem, nevertheless it is interesting to explore the origins.
I think you will find it enlightening, and there do not appear to be any inexpensive alternatives. One book I recommend is Shakespeare's Wordcraft, which includes the use of Shakespearean language patterns, not specifically about coinage although some examples are included.
If you decide to get it, I think you will quite like it, and I hope this was helpful.
By comparison this book, 274 pages long is composed of chapters on each letter, including quizzes, some pictures, an estimated coverage of one and a half words per page, with examples of usage and sometimes ontology, and is a somewhat light hearted look at the use of language, covering 450 to 490 words.
You may not know for example that the following words, according to the authors were coined by Shakespeare:
Accused, addiction, advertising, auspicious, bandit, baseless, bet, buzzer, courtship, dawn, denote, design, elbow, embrace, engagement, eyeball, fashionable, film, flawed, forward, generous, gloomy, glow, go-between, green-eyed (as in monster), gust, high-pitched (Rape of Lucrece), hint, hush, impede, inaudible, investment, jet, jig, kickshaw, kissing (really?), lackluster, lapse, launder, lonely, lower, luggage, manager, marketable, metamorphise, misquote, monumental, mimic, negotiate, noiseless, numb.
Obscene, ode, outbreak, Olympian, pageantry, pedant, perusal, premeditated, promethean, radiance, rant,roadway, reclusive, remorseless, retirement, rival, roadway,rumination, sacrificial, sanctimonious, scuffle, secure, shooting star, stealthy, switch, splitting, swagger, tardiness, threatingly, torture (2 Henry VI), tranquil, transcendence, unaware (V &A), unclog, undress (TTS), unmitigated, unreal, urging, varied, vaulting, watchdog,, weel-behaved, widen, widowed, wild-goose chase (RJ), worm-hole (RL), worthless, yelping (1H IV), yoking (VA), zany.
If you read this book I think you will find it both informative, and entertaining. Why I do not give it a higher number of stars is that I was hoping for a book that includes all the words, so for me though the subject is interesting this book has a limited appeal and value.
I have researched several of the words published as originated by Shakespeare, in the Oxford edition, and elsewhere. Some words such as jet mentioned above were previously used by Greene, some coined by Marlowe include faceless, light-borne, lineage, sweet-flowering, undecked, so there are some errors in attribution. Undoubtedly words such as kissing must have existed before they were first used in a Shakespeare play or poem, nevertheless it is interesting to explore the origins.
I think you will find it enlightening, and there do not appear to be any inexpensive alternatives. One book I recommend is Shakespeare's Wordcraft, which includes the use of Shakespearean language patterns, not specifically about coinage although some examples are included.
If you decide to get it, I think you will quite like it, and I hope this was helpful.
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book for myself and a copy for my granddaughter, age 13. She had played a leading role in Midsummer's Night two year's ago at her St. Paul elementary school. The experience won her over to Shakespeare. Since I didn't start reading Shakespeare before age 18, I wondered if Coined by Shakespeare would be too far out-of-tune with the romance novels that she was devouring. Well, I've read it now. It is a dandy. A real banger, as Hardy would put it. Rarely does a scholarly book meet the needs of anyone less versed than a PhD. This book, I'm making wager, will charm a 13 year old word lover. We just finished a Minnesota blizzard. I'm tickled that Shakespeare coined "gust."
Format:Hardcover
Coined By Shakespeare: Words & Meanings First Penned By The Bard is the welcome result of lengthy and painstaking research conducted under impeccable standards of scholarship. Readers can also enjoy testing their knowledge of Shakespeare linguistic trivia through a series of quizzes which are interspersed throughout. Coined By Shakespeare is a "must" for all Shakespeare enthusiasts and word buffs.
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