Interesting Facts about Shakespeare

Did you know that of the 17,677 words that Shakespeare uses in his plays, sonnets, and narrative poems, his is the first use of over 1,700 of them?

At Merriam-Webster's web site, they highlight a new book titled Coined by Shakespeare. This book dedicated itself to researching the words "invented" by the bard. Check out their weekly "Coinages and Curiosities."

Here is a list of some of the individual words that heretofore would not exist without the Bard:

Shakespeare also added to the English language many compound words and cliches that we now cannot live (or write) without:

barefaced	fancy-free	green eyed
heartsick	hot-blooded	housekeeping
lackluster	leapfrog	long-haired
pitched battle	clothes make the man	method in his madness
to thine own self be true	towering passion	ministering angel
dog will have his day	frailty, thy name is woman	neither a borrower nor a lender be
brevity is the soul of wit	mind's eye	primrose path
flaming youth	it smells to heaven	the lady doth protest too much
witching time of the night	it's Greek to me	live long day
breathe one's last	heart of gold	give the devil his due
too much of a good thing	naked truth	foregone conclusion
break the ice	strange bedfellows	wear one's heart on one's sleeve
all that glitters isn't gold	eat out of house and home	be all and end all
more sinned against than sinning	one fell swoop	the milk of human kindness
the course of true love never did run smooth