Sunday 21 June 2009

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WORD

I'm still recovering from the huge let-down over the revelation of that one millionth word.

Since Master Wm Shakespeare was vaguely implicated in the hoop-la surrounding what was, as it turned out, a non-event, it's worth remembering that the Bard of Avon coined (or, at least was the first to use in writing) a number of common-or-garden words (perhaps as many as 1,500) including abstemious, alligator, bedroom, eyeball, farmhouse, jaded, label, marketable, obscene, sanctimonious, tranquil and zany.

Personally, I doubt he actually 'made up' some of those. I mean, if he had, how would anyone in the audience at the Globe have known what Romeo was referring to when he talked about an apothecary in whose "needy shop a tortoise hung, / An alligator stuff'd, and other skins"; or what Prince Hal meant in calling Falstaff a "whoreson, obscene, greasy, tallow catch," although, in that instance, they'd probably have got the general drift!

However, the fact remains that Will's the lad to whom we can trace back the use of such words as 'employer', 'manager', 'investment', 'retirement', 'negotiate', 'petition', 'protesters' and 'violations'.

And he gave us such useful phrases as 'not budge an inch', 'green-eyed jealousy', 'eaten out of house and home', 'neither here nor there', 'to play fast and loose', 'to be tongue-tied', 'to be a tower of strength' or 'to knit your brows'.

Not to mention such everyday expressions 'a method in my madness', 'insist on fair play', 'make a virtue of necessity', 'stand on ceremony', 'too much of a good thing', 'seen better days' and 'living in a fool’s paradise'.

When we describe someone as 'a laughing stock', say something is 'a sorry sight', that we are 'in a pickle', or 'in stitches' and that something happened 'in the twinkling of an eye' we are, whether we know it or not, quoting Shakespeare.

He was even the man responsible for the phrase (spoken by Jack Cade in Henry VI) 'as dead as a doornail', that, centuries later, prompted another of Britain's great wordsmiths, Charles Dickens, to write...
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

It's also worth noting that - for such an oft-quoted writer - Shakespeare was the first person to use the word 'misquote'!!


Cartoons: Court Jones and Cox & Forkum

11 comments:

SharonM said...

Yet another Sibley 'tour de force' - verily!

Did you choose the last cartoon because those responsible for it follow on nicely from your previous blog?

scb said...

They should have exhumed dear Will and had him coin the millionth word. As it is, said millionth word is perhaps one more doornail in the coffin of the beauty of the English language. (And then again, perhaps not. The English language has survived much, so far...)

And, apropos of absolutely nothing, I came across a meme the other day, which asks the burning question "If there were a movie made of your life, who would you want to star?" (I,of course, could not just answer the question simply, I had to write a few scenarios to illustrate said "movie". "Leave well enough alone" is not a phrase that is in my regular vocabulary.

BICALNEW -- (should have been the millionth word) It's a New! Improved! low cal drink, for those who feel they're drinking nothing if they drink one of those zero calorie concoctions -- 2 Calorie New Beverage. It's bound to catch on. Or not.

Brian Sibley said...

SHARON - Just try eating COX soup with a FORKUM...

SCB - 'Bicalnew' would have made an excellent millionth word and still not made the dictionary any heavier!

As to who would have to play me in a movie of my life. It's too late! Orson Welles and Charles Laughton (the only two possible contenders) are both dead. Hollywood today would probably cast Jack Black but that would be too great an indignity...

scb said...

Surely either Laughton or Welles would be willing to make a comeback (and what a comeback that would be) for the honour of portraying you in a film?

I, of course, chose Julie Andrews (I really do think she'd be the perfect choice).

Back to this post -- as SharonM says, it is a tour de force. You have such a way with words... you do the Bard proud!

TWEELOG -- well. I'm uncertain if it's just a branch with a speech impediment, or a branch that's too too sweet for words.

Brian Sibley said...

TWEELOG is my favourite new word of the week. Might it be Scottish in origin, as in "T' wee log"?

scb said...

Och, aye, why did I no' see that, laddie?

SharonM said...

't'wee log sounds like a Lancashire/Scottish combination, as in 'there's trouble at 't' mill.

As for who I would like to play me, I wonder if Julie Walters can do a Glasgow accent that's often said to have a slight American twang to it. Don't think I'd like to be represented as sounding like Mary Doll - Rab C Nesbitt's other half.

SharonM said...

Forsooth, I'm having trouble signing in all of a sudden - this is just a test blog to be rejected.
xxx

Brian Sibley said...

I thought I'd publish it, so you'd know it got through and because it makes my blog look more popular with extra comments!!

Anonymous said...

While on holiday we were weaving a fantasy future screenplay on a mysterious expensive yacht & its occupants we were watching through binoculars(it would have ended up James Bond meets Mary Stewart if it were ever penned!). Herself thought Kate Winslet ought to play her part. I suggested Brad Pitt for mine but Timothy Spall was though more appropriate.

Roger O B...
blolon: a new fabric to make inflatable beach beds that are easier to inflate.

Brian Sibley said...

Don't delay! Sell the concept now!! Mega-bucks await, I have no doubt whatsoever!