Tricky Words in Shakespeare
Changing Vocabulary in Shakespeare Plays Can Fool Student Actors.
Definitions of words used in Shakespeare that have changed meanings in modern English and frequently trip up unwary readers.
Most people reading Shakespeare nowadays find it necessary to reach for a dictionary occasionally, or to consult the notes at the bottom of the page. The changes in English since the turn of the seventeenth century, along with Shakespeare’s own inventive use of vocabulary, mean that we frequently come up against unusual or even inexplicable words. More treacherous, however, are words which have remained in English whilst changing their meaning, and it is all to easy to be mislead by these faux amis. Below are some terms which often catch out unwary readers:
‘a: A simple enough word, and apparently straightforward. In fact if it appears with an apostrophe in Renaissance English it’s being used as a substitute for the pronouns “he” or “she”.
and: Though “and” does have the same meaning in Shakespeare’s time as in ours, it doubles as an alternative to “if”.
nice: This word has been through a lot of changes in meaning during its long life – see the comments on it in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (“Oh, it is a very nice word. It does for everything!”) and the chapter C.S. Lewis devotes to it in Studies In Words. A number of teachers ban it from their students’ work, since they say it has been worn out, and doesn’t actually mean anything any more. In Shakespeare it has connotations of modesty, precision and even squeamishness.
prevailing: These days we talk about the “prevailing situation” or the “prevailing winds”, as those which are currently in operation. To “prevail” in Renaissance English has the rather more forceful meaning of conquering or triumphing.
stomach: The implications of this word cross over with our modern meaning; it is frequently used to mean “appetite” or “will” to do something.
tables: Nothing to do with furniture, when Hamlet says he will set what he has thought down in the “tables” of his memory, he means he will put it in a metaphorical notebook. John Marston uses the longer form “table-books” in his play A New Way To Pay Old Debts. Presumably it derives from the “tablets” of wax bound in wood which Roman scribes used to make notes, as they could then be scratched out and smoothed over.
use: When it’s being employed as a verb, rather than a verb, the older meaning of “use” is close to the modern words “habit” and “custom”. In fact we still maintain this sense in the phrase “to be used to something”.
