To help you better understand Shakespeare’s works we’ve put together the below Shakespeare dictionary, listing Shakespeare’s words, along with a description and example of the word used in context in a Shakespeare play.
In many ways, Shakespeare is the founder of the modern English that we use. It’s generally accepted that he invented or brought into popular usage thousands of words and phrases, and wrote some of litereature’s most memorable lines. However, Shakespeare wrote almost 400 years ago in Early Modern English, and a number of words that were common in his day have since fallen out of usage. The dictionary below lists the words Shakespeare used that are not in common usage today, or may have a different meaning.
If there’s a word you need to understand that’s not listed, please let us know in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Romeo and Juliet, Act one scene one. opening:- What “…go to the wall…” mean? please
To go to the wall or take the wall means to walk on the side of the sidewalk that is closest to the wall of the buildings. This is a safer place to be, because on the outside, you can be spattered with the mud of passing horses, and the chamber pots being emptied from the second story into the gutter. (This was before plumbing.) The arc of that sewage would also most likely hit the outer edge of the sidewalk. Gentlemen usually give ladies the wall, but if two men pass each other, to take the wall is quite plainly to esteem oneself higher than the other.
what does jest mean
To jest means to be joking. Something that is funny or they are trying to lie and get away with an exaggeration of the truth – ‘pulling your leg’ As in- Surely you jest, there can’t possibly be 10,000 jelly beans in that tiny jar, it is far too small.
What does piss-potter getting sturdy on a broom stick eating chakan mean?
Can “division” have a musical connotation in Shakespeare?