Making Up Words with Shakespeare

According to Jacqueline Morley in William Shakespeare: A Very Peculiar History, Shakespeare probably made up about 1,700 new words.

Here are some of them: assassination, courtship, outbreak, fashionable, and exposure.

And a few that didn't make it: insultment, unbuild, and exsufflicate (which means puffed up--whew, glad that one didn't catch on). 

If the greatest writer in the English language could make up new words, why can't we?

Get out a piece of paper--any old kind where you can make a big mess and scratch out words. 

Next, find a dictionary--a paper dictionary works best for this. 

Open the dictionary, stick out your finger, and randomly choose three words. I picked: 

fugleman: a leader

campus: the grounds of a school

louver: a slatted, ventilated opening

Now it's time to create our very own word. Choose one syllable from each word to create a brand new one, along with its meaning:

fugcamer: a camera that works especially well in bad weather 

puslouman: a person who works in a hospital

leloupus: a French pastry

You try! We may not be the next William Shakespeares (or maybe we are), but we can have fun adding our own words to the English language. 

Mancamlou! That's "Yellow Pencils" talk for good-bye! 

Dictionary Fun

What? What's fun about reading the dictionary in the middle of summer???  


Yes, it can be fun. Honest. I'm not kidding. Words and definitions are weird and wonderful. 


Try this: 


Find a dictionary. Maybe it's a beat-up old dictionary you've had around the house for a while. Or an online dictionary. Or a small paperback dictionary you carry around in your backpack.


Pick a letter at random. Let's say "t." 


Find five words under the letter "t" that you don't know the meaning of. I found T-zone, tabard, traduce, tole, and tinea. Read the definitions, just for fun.  


Pick your favorite word and write a story about it.  (Tinea means ringworm--ooh, don't want to write about that.) I picked tole. That means "painted, enameled, or lacquered tinplate used to make decorative domestic objects." (That means "objects around the house.")


What if a boy walks into an antique store and finds an old pot made of tole? And what if the antique store owner warns the boy that anyone who puts water into that pot will cause something bad to happen? What if the boy doesn't believe him? What if he buys the pot, takes it home, and fills it with water?


What could happen next? 


The dictionary is a treasure trove of ideas....even in summer!