The History of English in Ten Minutes Shakespeare
Narrator:
As the dictionary tells us, about 2000 new words and phrases were invented by Shakespeare.
He gave us handy words like eyeball, puppy-dog and anchovy and more show-offy words like dauntless, besmirch and lacklustre. He came up with the word alligator, soon after he ran out of things to rhyme with crocodile. And a nation of tea-drinkers finally took him to their hearts when he invented the hobnob.
Shakespeare knew the power of catchphrases as well as biscuits. Without him we would never eat our flesh and blood out of house and home – we’d have to say good riddance to the green-eyed monster and breaking the ice would be as dead as a doornail. If you tried to get your money’s worth you’d be given short shrift and anyone who laid it on with a trowel could be hoist with his own petard.
Of course it’s possible other people used these words first, but the dictionary writers liked looking them up in Shakespeare because there was more cross-dressing and people poking each other’s eyes out.
Shakespeare’s poetry showed the world that English was a language as rich vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power. And he still had time to open all those tearooms in Stratford.