English to Elizabethan language translation

ELIZABETHAN / SHAKESPEAREAN DICTIONARY
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William Shakespeare Online Dictionary
Words, Language, Meanings, Origins & Dictionary
The Shakespeare language used in the works of the Bard is rich and colourful, but many of his odd words are no longer in current use or in the modern dictionary and the origins meanings of the Elizabethan vocabulary are totally unfamiliar. William Shakespeare's works sometimes appears to have a language of its own. Indeed, William Shakespeare did in fact invent many of the words that he used and these are documented in the William Shakespeare dictionary - inventing new words to the English language seems to be a definite objective for Shakespear! The words coined by Shakespeare are explained with their full origins and meanings. We have therefore included a free, online Shakespearean Dictionary for most of his expressions which are obscure or even obsolete in modern language or in a modern Dictionary. The online Shakespeare Dictionary includes all of the words coined by Shakespeare words together with their origins and meanings. See how many phrases and words in the free, online Shakespearean Dictionary are new to you and what the definition of their meanings and their origins are - it makes the language of the Great Bard much easier to understand.

The Elizabethan Vocabulary and Language of a Literary Genius
He was not born to the nobility and his Elizabethan education was quite basic as he left school at the age of 13 and never attended University. Neither of his parents could read or write - a dictionary was not that important during the era ! Yet his vocabulary was massive for a man of his background. A total of 15, 000 different words were used in his plays and a further 7000 were used in his poems and sonnets. This gave him a vocabulary of 21, 000 words when the average vocabulary of the day in Stratford, England, was less than 500. No wonder we need an online Shakespearean Dictionary ! Even by today's standards, the most celebrated authors do not exceed an average of 7500 words (The poet, John Milton was an exception and his totalled about 8000) and the average English speaking person only has about 2, 000 words in their vocabulary. For a person with a University degree this range in vocabulary would rise to about 3000 to 4000. It is therefore no wonder that he is referred to as an Elizabethan Literary Genius and why we have included a free, online Elizabethan / Shakespearean Dictionary featuring the vocabulary coined by the Bard on this section of the site.