Words and Phrases Coined by Shakespeare

NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler.

For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare.

Words Supposedly Coined by Shakespeare

Click here for some words which Shakespeare evidently coined but which did NOT pass into common use. They include "affined", "to articulate" (in the sense of "to negotiate"), "attasked", "cadent" (in the sense of "dripping"), "to beetle", "bubukles", "co-marts", "co-mates", "congreeing", "conspectuities", "crants" (a borrowing for "flower crowns"), "credent", "dispunge", "enactures", "to force" (meaning "to reinforce"), "fracted", "to friend" (thanks to social media, now a mainstream word again! -- there ar earlier attestations), "germins", "immediacy" (meaning immediate authority from), "immoment", "impair" (adjective for impure), "incarnadine", "incorpsed" (incorporated), "indigest" (disordered), "intrenchant" (incapable of being cut), "irregulous", "jointing", "mered", "mirable", "mistempered", "operant", "oppugnancy", "palmy", "out-crafted", "out-villained", "out-tongued", "plantage", "primogenitive", "primy", "propugnation", "relume", "reprobance", "rigol", "rooky", "roted", "rubious", "smilets", "to stell", "stellèd", "supplyment", "unsisting", and "virgined" (held securely).

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