TIL that Shakespeare made up over 1,700 words we still use today

I was reading a random article while eating lunch and found out that Shakespeare invented words like 'bedroom,' 'gossip,' 'fashionable,' and even 'swagger.' I always thought he was just fancy with old English, but he literally made stuff up that stuck around. Now I feel like my characters can get away with way more made-up words than I thought. Has anyone else tried using a new word in a story and justified it with this fact?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony_wells28d ago

Pretty sure it's more like 600 words he was the first to write down, not 1,700 he actually invented out of thin air. Still impressive, just not quite as wild as making up a whole new vocabulary.

ivanb4128d ago

Gotta agree with that, 600 first recorded uses is still a hell of a track record for one guy. Most of us would be lucky to coin one word that sticks, let alone a few hundred.