To be or not to be, that is the question.

Have you ever wondered where the word lonely came from? What about the word elbow?

Believe it or not, William Shakespeare invented them. Lonely was in Coriolanus Act IV Scene I, and elbow was in King Lear Act IV Scene III. In fact, he came up with 1700 new words that we still use today. The word blushing is used in Shakespeare’s play King Henry VI when the character York says “
O Clifford, but bethink thee once again,

And in thy thought o'er-run my former time;

And, if though canst for blushing, view this face,

And bite thy tongue, that slanders him with cowardice

Whose frown hath made thee faint and fly ere this!

Without the invention of the word “blushing” how would you be able to embarrass your little brother
When he has a crush on someone? Some more words William Shakespeare invented were eyeball, bedroom, caked, generous, fashionable, ode, unreal, luggage, noiseless, worthless, bump, hint, and buzzer. He also made up phrases such as clothes make the man, the milk of human kindness, and wear one's heart on one's sleeve. Without the brilliance of Shakespeare’s words, we could have spoken with an entirely different vocabulary. This just shows you how he influenced our written words.

Mabillard, Amanda."Shakespeare." Shakespeare's Influence.1 2007. The New York Times Company. 23 Oct. 2007 .