For many, William Shakespeare is the greatest writer that ever lived. Whether you like the Bard’s work or not – I particularly liked him in that episode of Doctor Who with the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones – there’s no ignoring the huge impact the man had on written English.
Did you know that almost 10% of the words Shakespeare used in his writing were invented by the man himself? That is a staggering 1,700 common, everyday words that would not be in existence had he not used them first.
You probably know a number of these, but words first used by Shakespeare include:
apostrophe, obscene, bump, castigate, critic, dwindle, road, hurry, lonely, majestic and exposure.
Mad, isn’t it?
And so, who would you think would be the natural heir to Shakespeare, in terms of growing the fabulous English language with important, clever new words?
That’s right, folks. It’s Sarah Palin!
It’s difficult to know where to start with this one. Ignoring the clumsy Muslim references, Palin appears to have attempted to combine ‘refute’ and ‘repudiate’ into one new word – ‘refudiate’. It is even worse when you consider that neither of the two words she has combined are really fit for purpose.
And it’s not a mistake, either. Oh no.
See? Palin wants to celebrate the evolution of English as a growing language with the introducing of the words ‘repudiate’ and ‘misunderestimate’ and the phrase ‘wee-wee’d up’.
I bet old Billy is turning in his grave (that’s not one of his, by the way).
(Thanks to TPM for the inspiration and to Copestone for the link).
…………………………………………………………………….
Nick Parkhouse is a professional writer. If you need web copy, articles, books or press releases, get in touch with Nick now at info@nickparkhouse.com
Nick’s first book, 101 Forgotten Pop Hits of the 1980s, is also now available through Author House, Amazon and Waterstones.
