The Origin of Words and Phrases: Shakespeare Edition
Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
Gary Arndt
4.7 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Of all the billions of people who have spoken English throughout history, one person has probably impacted the language more than any other. |
| 0:07.0 | The person who is considered the greatest playwright in the language is also responsible for adding more words and phrases than anyone else. |
| 0:15.0 | His impact on the language isn't just due to his skill and output as a writer, but also to the fact |
| 0:19.6 | that he wrote his works when modern English was being created. |
| 0:23.0 | Learn more about the words and phrases which came to us from William Shakespeare |
| 0:26.6 | on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. I'm sure that most of you are at least aware of who William Shakespeare is. |
| 0:48.0 | Even if you haven't actually read any of the works of Shakespeare or attended any of his plays, |
| 0:52.0 | you know that he was a significant figure |
| 0:54.2 | in the history of English literature. What you probably don't know is just how many of the words and |
| 0:59.5 | phrases that you use every day were invented by Shakespeare. |
| 1:03.0 | It's estimated that there are over 1,700 words that Shakespeare introduced into the English |
| 1:07.9 | language. Many of them consist of turning nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, putting two old words together to make a new one, |
| 1:14.7 | adding suffixes and prefixes, and just inventing wholly new words out of nothing. |
| 1:20.3 | In addition to new words, Shakespeare also created many of the phrases and idioms that we use every day. |
| 1:26.0 | So most people are totally unaware that every day they're quoting Shakespeare. |
| 1:31.0 | I should also note that it is entirely possible that Shakespeare did not create some of these words and phrases |
| 1:36.0 | but he simply was the first one to put them into writing. |
| 1:39.0 | They could have been used in everyday language but just not written down. |
| 1:42.0 | Even if that's the case, |
| 1:43.4 | Shakespeare should still get credit as the person who popularized and first used the |
| 1:47.3 | words in print. With that, let's get a start with one of the phrases he |
| 1:51.3 | popularized and which I've had a request from |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gary Arndt, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Gary Arndt and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.