Words Invented by Shakespeare
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Words Invented by Shakespeare — Daily trivia Wednesday, July 29, 2026: questions and answers
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Q 01Which adjective, formed from an older noun plus -ic, first appears in Cassius's 'get the start of the ___ world'?
- ARoyal
- BStately
- CGlorious
- DMajestic
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Majestic
The noun 'majesty' had been around for centuries; Shakespeare simply bolted -ic onto it around 1599, and the sober alternative 'majestatic' never caught on.
Q 02Which everyday word, from 'alone' plus -ly, was first recorded in Coriolanus's 'a ___ dragon'?
- ASolitary
- BIsolated
- CForlorn
- DLonely
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Lonely
For Shakespeare the word meant only 'solitary'; the sadness we now hear in it did not attach until around 1811.
Q 03Which word for dull or uninspired quality first appeared in Shakespeare's As You Like It?
- ATedious
- BMonotonous
- CLackluster
- DDrab
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Lackluster
Jaques describes a fool 'looking on it with lack-lustre eye'. Shakespeare loved the pattern: he also gives us lack-love, lack-beard and lack-brain.
Q 04Which verb, first recorded in Shakespeare, fills the Macbeth witch's curse 'Shall he ___, peak and pine'?
- ARecede
- BDwindle
- CWane
- DDiminish
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Dwindle
It is a diminutive of the older verb 'dwine', to waste away, which itself goes back to Old English; the witch is promising the sailor a slow, shrinking misery.
Q 05What word for a boastful way of walking first appeared in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?
- ASwagger
- BSaunter
- CProwl
- DStrut
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Swagger
Puck asks 'What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here?' as the mechanicals blunder into the fairy queen's bower; the word probably comes from 'swag', to sway.
Q 06Which 1590s adjective completes Solanio's 'though Nestor swear the jest be ___' in The Merchant of Venice?
- ALudicrous
- BAbsurd
- CLaughable
- DRisible
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Laughable
Old English had its own word for the idea, 'hleaterlic', but it died out; Ben Jonson tried 'laughworthy' a few years later and lost.
Q 07What term for a strong inclination or devotion was first recorded in Shakespeare's Henry V?
- AAddiction
- BObsession
- CFixation
- DHabit
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Addiction
The Archbishop of Canterbury marvels that Prince Hal turned out so learned 'since his addiction was to courses vain'. The drug sense arrived only around 1906, first for opium.
Q 08In which of his history plays did Shakespeare coin the term 'cold-blooded', meaning callous?
- ARichard III
- BKing John
- CHenry VI
- DJulius Caesar
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King John
Constance hurls 'Thou cold-blooded slave' at the Duke of Austria. The insult rests on old medicine's belief that blood literally heated with passion; the reptile sense came slightly later.
Q 09Which body part did Shakespeare use as a verb meaning 'to push or jostle' in King Lear?
- AElbow
- BFoot
- CHead
- DHand
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Elbow
Kent explains that 'a sovereign shame so elbows him' — shame keeps shoving Lear away from Cordelia. The figurative sense of elbowing someone aside was not common until the 1860s.
Q 10Which term for jealousy was introduced by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice?
- AEnvious
- BGreen-eyed
- CResentful
- DCovetous
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Green-eyed
Portia names 'green-eyed jealousy' as Bassanio chooses the right casket; Iago's 'green-eyed monster' in Othello came a few years later and stole the phrase's fame.
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