Having to search for a word in Oxford English Dictionary resulted in a thought coming to my mind. How many words did Shakespeare contribute to our vocabulary? This is what I found. Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000 words into the language. His vocabulary, as culled from his works, numbers upward of 17,000 words (quadruple that of an average, well-educated conversationalist in the language). In the words of Louis Marder, "Shakespeare was so facile in employing words that he was able to use over 7,000 of them—more than occur in the whole King James version of the Bible—only once and never again." (http://www.bardweb.net/language.html) This is AMAZING as he had very little formal education.
The link will provide the words Shakespeare invented.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html
That's really interesting! I knew it was a lot, but I especially liked your quote at the end there ^_^
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