Prithee partyeth as if 'twas 1564

In sooth, 'tis the day to pattern thy parlance to evoke the Bard!

To celebrate the 445th birthday of the greatest playwright of the English language, Mayor Richard Dailey of Chicago has declared today "Talk Like Shakespeare Day." Although Shakespeare's actual birth date is unknown, many scholars believe 'twas April 23, 1564.

In honor of this grand occasion, I encourage all of you to throw as many instances of "prithee," "fie!", and "thou" into your conversation as possible. It's easy to add "eth" to the end of all your verbs, and simply drop the "it" and use the letter "T" instead.

The "www.talklikeshakespeare.org" website has a fun quiz on words coined by Shakespeare, as well as some great tips to help you truly talk like the Bard.

But probably the funnest (hey, if he could make up words, then I can certainly use non-words as well) part of today is the ability to unleash all those gloriously vivid Shakespearean insults.

Why call your rival mean girl/ex-boyfriend/boss (insert proper baddie here) an idiot when a "vain fen-sucked fustilarian" is so much more fun.

Besides, if you walk around saying "Thou dissembling elf-skinned flirt-gill!" you can feel all superior, knowing that you've insulted your victim and he/she didn't even understand it.

Find your favorite insults with the Shakespearean Insults Generator:
http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/a1-shakespearean-insults-generator.htm

The Original Bard

It's no secret I'm a fan of Shakespeare, although I don't exactly go around quoting him. Or do I? Actually, we all quote Shakespeare a whole lot more than we realize. You see, Shakespeare "invented" about 1700 words and a ton of phrases. Here are just a few:

Words:

accommodation

aerial

amazement

apostrophe

assassination

auspicious

baseless

bloody

bump

castigate

control (noun)

countless

courtship

critic

critical

dishearten

dislocate

dwindle

eventful

exposure

fitful

frugal

generous

gloomy

gnarled

hurry

impartial

inauspicious

indistinguishable

invulnerable

lapse

laughable

lonely

majestic

misplaced

monumental

obscene

perusal

pious

premeditated

radiance

reliance

road

sanctimonious

seamy

submerge

suspicious

Phrases:

all that glitters isn't gold

barefaced

be all and end all

break the ice

breathe one's last

brevity is the soul of wit

catch a cold

clothes make the man

disgraceful conduct

dog will have his day

eat out of house and home

elbowroom

fair play

fancy-free

flaming youth

foregone conclusion

frailty, thy name is woman

give the devil his due

green eyed monster

heart of gold

heartsick

hot-blooded

housekeeping

it smells to heaven

it's Greek to me

lackluster

leapfrog

live long day

long-haired

method in his madness

mind's eye

naked truth

neither a borrower nor a lender be

one fell swoop

pitched battle

primrose path

strange bedfellows

the lady doth protest too much

the milk of human kindness

to thine own self be true

too much of a good thing

wear one's heart on one's sleeve

witching time of the night

Have you invented any words or phrases? Tell me what they are!