16 July 2009

John Milton, wordsmith

I had always assumed that Shakespeare* had added the most words to our modern English vocabulary. An essay in the Guardian today suggests that honor should be bestowed on John Milton:
According to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge university and fellow of Milton's alma mater, Christ's College, who has trawled the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for evidence, Milton is responsible for introducing some 630 words to the English language, making him the country's greatest neologist, ahead of Ben Jonson with 558, John Donne with 342 and Shakespeare with 229. Without the great poet there would be no liturgical, debauchery, besottedly, unhealthily, padlock, dismissive, terrific, embellishing, fragrance, didactic or love-lorn. And certainly no complacency...

Milton's coinages can be loosely divided into five categories. A new meaning for an existing word - he was the first to use space to mean "outer space"; a new form of an existing word, by making a noun from a verb or a verb from an adjective, such as stunning and literalism; negative forms, such as unprincipled, unaccountable and irresponsible - he was especially fond of these, with 135 entries beginning with un-; new compounds, such as arch-fiend and self-delusion; and completely new words, such as pandemonium and sensuous.
More at the link.

*Edward DeVere, 17th Earl of Oxford

3 comments:

  1. Ah, see I have this crazy theory that Shakespeare and Edward DeVere are actually two different people. But which one faked the moon landings of Apollo 11?

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  2. Shaksper (the man from Stratford), and Edward DeVere (from Oxford) were certainly two separate people. But the pseudonym "Shakespeare" belonged to DeVere, not Shaksper.

    I do want to blog the topic, but as you perhaps know, it's as complicated as it is fascinating. In the meantime, those interested should visit the Shakespeare-Oxford Society at http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/?page_id=34.

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  3. I really love it that people think that Shakespeare couldn't have written his plays because he didn't go to college. 25,000,000 English majors later, still no Shakespeare.

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