Words Shakespeare Invented That Didn't Catch On

[Annie_Annie__]

As an American, if someone told me that “kicky-wicky” was a real term used in cricket, I’d believe them.

[jonahw]

Insultment sounds like a perfectly reasonable word

[pooroldnostradamus]

I don't mind "bepray" and "undeaf", actually

[APenguinsLullaby]

Excuse me, he got "kicky-wicky" spot on

[abiA]

So Shakespeare was allowed to make up words but when I did it my teacher got mad... 😂

[onbearfeet]

So you're saying "kicky-wicky" is free real estate...

[richardperson]

Bubukle refers to a sore such as a pimple. It's a malapropism combining bubo and carbuncle. It's in Webster's Online dictionary so it may not have caught on generally but it is a real word.

[SeventhSeraphOfficerRevolver]

Ok if we're doing this we're doing it right. We need a proper definition of "Kicky-Wicky", a few antonyms and synonyms and an example in a sentence.

[kateisblue]

An interesting linguistics thing is that it's unclear whether he invented many of the words he gets credit for! His works contain many first records of words, but there's also very few other books to compare to from that time; his works are some of the best records because people liked them so much they kept copying them on.

Paleontologists often have similar problems with fossils! Figuring out whether a species was less common, or just less likely to fossilise (eg anything with small bones) is difficult.

[Orchid_-]

Not gonna lie, undeaf could totally catch on. “Please sire, undeafean your ears, the people are starving!” Something like that.

[Locomotiveman]

I could have sworn to have heard "insultment" in casual use before...

[dfernandez]

Shakespeare should have his own dictionary and thesaurus 👍

[Cinesta]

Insultment is now a word i will be using 😅

[Lucifersfursona]

I started inventing words the moment I found out Shakespeare did it. Nobody can stop me. I’ll words as many words as I like

[joannebuttner]

My favourite made up words that I heard on a BBC news TV interview recently:
"Skeptecemia"
"Quip lash"
The interviewee was talking about Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna's) life/death... sounds like their dinner dates were a hoot. I love that the English language is so varied yet we still find ways to make up new words!

[jplouthelgm]

my insultment is immeasurable, and my kicky-wicky is undeafed.

[tapinix]

it's important to note that he was the first *recorded* person to use these words.
This means that it's very unlikely he didn't make a majority of them up, as there were words at the time that may have been used and never written down. He was the first person to write these words down, but not the one to create them.

Old English and Middle English are both dead languages, many words and grammar were lost to time. Shakespeare spoke early modern English, so many of these words very well have been words from Middle English which were otherwise forgotten after his time.

[safebox]

I had assumed he didn't actually invent s lot of them and was just the first to write them down.
Otherwise how would people in the audience know what he was referring to when it appeared in dialogue.

[MariaGreenwoodArt]

Petition to make kicky-wicky a real word

[petro]

You miss all the balls if you don't take a swing at them!