Today’s Shakespearean word of the day is… Jove

In Roman mythology, Jove (or Jupiter) is the king of the gods, associated with thunder and lightning.

In Shakespeare’s time, swearing by the ancient gods was common practice and the Roman god Jove or Jupiter would often be mentioned in this way. In Henry V, King Henry swears ‘By Jove’ and Lear in King Lear swears ‘By Jupiter’, both using the ancient Roman god to swear in the strongest way.

Listen to the pronunciation of Jove here

This definition is taken from the Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary, a unique dictionary to unlock the mysteries of Shakespeare’s world, words and language, compiled by renowned English language expert David Crystal and Shakespearean actor and producer Ben Crystal.