belch (verb) ‘noisily expel wind from the stomach’ This word, in its modern meaning, has been in English since Anglo-Saxon times, and it early developed a figurative usage, describing the way people can give vent to their feelings as a cannon or volcano ‘belches’ fire. The sense of ‘vomit’, literally or metaphorically, was common too, […]
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revolting (adjective) ‘repulsive, disgusting’ It is the modern meaning which sometimes causes a giggle when Cardinal Pandulph describes King John as a ‘revolting son’ to his mother the Church (KJ III.i.257) or the Lieutenant talks to Suffolk about ‘the false revolting Normans’ (2H6 IV.i.87). In all Shakespearian cases the meaning is different: ‘rebellious, mutinous, insurgent’. […]
Read morepuny (adjective) ‘feeble, weak, of small growth’ This word arrived in English during Shakespeare’s lifetime, and he is the first recorded user of several of its senses. The modern meanings can already be seen when King Richard, referring to Bolingbroke, addresses himself: ‘A puny subject strikes / At thy great glory’ (Richard II, III.ii.86) or […]
Read morenice (adjective) ‘agreeable, pleasant’ Nice has been used as a general adjective of approval only since the 18th-century. Before that, it expressed an extraordinary range of specific meanings, several of which are found in Shakespeare. A 14th-century sense, ‘lustful’, is found in Love’s Labour’s Lost, when Mote talks of ‘nice wenches’ (III.i.21). Another 14th-century sense, […]
Read morebashful (adjective) ‘sensitively modest, excessively self-conscious’ Bashful came into the language in its modern sense in the mid-16th century – a modification of an originally French word, abash, plus a suffix. Shakespeare uses abashed once, bashfulness once, and bashful eight times, usually associated with words that demonstrate the sense of modesty. ‘He burns with bashful […]
Read moreabroad (adverb) ‘out of the country, in foreign lands’ When this word arrived in Middle English, it soon developed a range of senses, including the modern one, and we find this in Shakespeare, such as at the very end of Macbeth (V.vi.105) when Malcolm expresses his intention to call home ‘our exiled friends abroad’ (i.e. […]
Read moreFalse friends (‘faux amis’) are words in one language which look the same as words in another. We therefore think that their meanings are the same, and get a shock when we find they are not. Generations of French students have believed that demander means ‘demand’ (whereas it means ‘ask’) or librairie means ‘library’ (instead […]
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