Shakespearean Impact on the English Language

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, the English language grew exponentially as it coined new words and imported many others from other languages. As David Crystal in “The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language” tells us, word borrowing is at a peak during Shakespeare’s lifetime: from Latin and Greek English borrows technical words like virus, catastrophe, encyclopedia, fact, species; from or via Spanish it borrows tobacco, port (wine), cannibal, canoe, mulatto, hurricane; words are also borrowed from Italian and French. Both foreign words to fill linguistic gaps, and foreign words as synonyms for extant English words come into the language, stimulated by increased learning, exploration, printing, and trade