10 Phrases (Possibly) Coined by Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a busy guy. I mean the man wrote, what, 38 plays and over 150 sonnets? Can you do that? Nah, me neither. It's really no surprise then that The Bard contributed so many words and phrases to the English language. Well, possibly contributed. Some of the phrases on this list might have been around before he wrote them, but usually he was the one who popularized it. Sometimes the phrase might have already been popular, but his was the first written account. Either way, All of these common sayings are credited to ol' Billy Shakespeare in some way.

1. "A sorry sight"
Means: Something regrettable or unwanted.

This one was first seen in Macbeth, 1605:

MACBETH: Hark! Who lies i' the second chamber?

LADY MACBETH: Donalbain.
MACBETH: This is a sorry sight.[Looking on his hands]

LADY MACBETH: A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

2. "All's well that ends well"
Means: If the end was good, all of it was.

This one wasn't only in a play, it was a play.
From All's Well That Ends Well, 1602:


HELENA:
Yet, I pray you:But with the word the time will bring on summer,
When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp. We must away;
Our wagon is prepared, and time revives us:
All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown;
Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.


3. "Dead as a doornail"
Means: Dead.

This is one of the ones that was around before Shakespeare, but most people credit him with popularizing
it.

From King Henry VI, 1590:

CADE: Brave thee! ay, by the best blood that ever was
broached, and beard thee too. Look on me well: I
have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and
thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead
as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.

No one is quite sure why they used a doornail for the simile, but I guess if you think about it, it is
unusable once you bend it. Maybe. I don't know.


4. "Fight fire with fire"
Means: Do the same thing your opponent is doing.

OK, so this is only half Shakespearean. He was the first to write the words "fight fire with fire", but the
meaning we know today probably came about in the 1800's, when people really tried fighting fire with fire
(they called it "back-fire").

Here's Shakespeare's part anyway. From King John, 1597:

Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire;
Threaten the threatener and outface the brow
Of bragging horror


5. "Good Riddance"Means: Someone or something you really hate just left. Yay!

From Troilus and Cressida, 1609:

THERSITES: I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents:
I will keep where there is wit stirring and leave the faction of fools.
PATROCLUS: A good riddance.

I read somewhere that the whole phrase should be "good riddance to bad rubbish", but I've never heard
that before.


6. "In a Pickle"Means: In a tricky situation.

This one was kind of around before Shakespeare, but he was the one who wrote it the way we know today.

From The Tempest, 1611:

ALONSO: And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?
How camest thou in this pickle?
TRINCULO: I have been in such a pickle since I
saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of
my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

Back then "pickle" referred more to the stuff the vegetables were put in than the actual vegetables, so I
guess being in pickle juice would be a tricky situation. Kind of.


7. "In stitches"
Means: Laughing so hard it hurts.

From Twelfth Night, 1601:

MARIA: If you desire the spleen, and will laugh yourself
into stitches, follow me. Yond gull Malvolio is turned heathen,
a very renegado; for there is no Christian, that means to be saved
by believing rightly, can ever believe such impossible passages of
grossness. He's in yellow stockings.

This phrase didn't really catch on until the 20th century ( when it was found in print again), but hey, better
late than never, I guess.


8. "Mum's the word"
Means: Be quiet.

I always thought this was the mum that meant mother, and I always wondered what mothers had to do
with keeping quiet. Then I learned that "mum" refers to "mmmmm", the sound you make with your mouth
closed.

From Henry VI, Part 2, ~1590:

Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.


9. "Night Owl"
Means: Someone who likes night better than day.

Before and around the time Shakespeare was around, "night owl" just meant owl, which was completely
pointless, I think, because aren't all owls night owls? Isn't that like saying there are giraffes, and then there
are the giraffes that have long necks?

But anyway, the first use of the term we know now was in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

This said, his guilty hand pluck'd up the latch,
And with his knee the door he opens wide.
The dove sleeps fast that this night-owl will catch:
Thus treason works ere traitors be espied.


10. "Wild goose chase"
Means: Something you're doing that you might as well give up on.

From Romeo and Juliet, 1592:

ROMEO: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
MERCUTIO: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done,
for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.

Back when Shakespeare used this phrase, it didn’t actually refer to catching birds like it does today. Back
then a “wild goose chase” was a horse chase, where all the horses would follow one lead horse, kind of like
the way geese fly. It actually started to refer to geese in the 1800’s.





And a thank you to this website, which is where I got most of my information.