Here are the words I have used most often over the past year, month after month, that are not in Shakespeare. Where possible, I give their meanings in words that Shakespeare used.
By year:
- Before 1500:
- 1500s:
- 1550: mostly – for the most part.
- 1560: political – having to do with getting and keeping power in a city or country.
- 1600s:
- 1600: national – of a nation or country.
- 1600: around – round or about.
- 1620: probably – likely.
- 1620: Muslim – follower of Mahomet.
- 1630: Blacks – blackamoors, people with black skin, particularly those from Africa.
- 1640: Natives – Indians of America.
- 1680: Whites – people with white skin, particularly those from Europe.
- 1664: New York – the largest English-speaking city in America.
- 1700s:
- 1716: police – the constable and his men.
- 1769: department – a part of the state’s power, like the treasury.
- 1772: class – a division of society based on wealth. From richest to poorest: upper class, middle class and working class.
- 1777: American – from the US (see below).
- 1791: Washington – the capital of the US (see below), named after the founder of the country, George Washington.
- 1800s:
- 1834: US – the largest English-speaking country in America.
- 1839: thug – ruffian, or a blackamoor assumed to be a ruffian.
- 1843: The Economist – a weekly printing of news.
- 1854: Republican – a ruling party in the US that more strongly favours the rich.
- 1862: racial – having to do with race, the three to seven divisions of mankind according to difference in physical appearance, like skin colour. In the US, Whites, Blacks, Asians and Natives are considered to be separate races.
- 1867: culture – the ways and knowledge of a people.
- 1876: lyrics – the words of a song
- 1890: police brutality – when the police hurt or kill someone against the law.
- 1899: 1600s, etc: the period from the year 1600 to 1699. Likewise for the 1700s, 1800s, etc.
- 1900s:
- 1907: television – a box that shows video (see below).
- 1926: Hollywood – a town in America famous for making the things people watch on television and elsewhere.
- 1932: racist – one who believes racial differences make some people better than others.
- 1933: Hitler – the leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Killed half the Jews of Europe, an example of genocide.
- 1936: racism – what racists believe.
- 1944: genocide – the murder of a people.
- 1944: terrorist – a rebel who uses terror.
- 1953: stereotype – fixed ideas about people who look different or belong to another religion or country, etc.
- 1955: Martin Luther King, Jr – a champion of equal rights for Blacks.
- 1961: chart – the list of top-selling songs for a given week or year
- 1972: Hispanic – someone in the US from a Spanish-speaking country.
- 1983: video – a record of moving images and sound, one that can be seen over and over again, like on YouTube or television.
- 1985: Internet – ??
- 1999: blog – a place on the Internet to write for the public.
- 2000s:
- 2005: YouTube – a place on the Internet to watch videos.
- 2006: Twitter – a place on the Internet to write and read short public messages.
- 2006: Abagond – me.
- 2009: Obama – leader of the US since 2009.
- 2014: Ferguson – a town in America famous for an act of police brutality:
- 2014: Darren Wilson – a White police officer who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man in Ferguson.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- Could Shakespeare read our English?
- New words from 1983 to 2012
- Anachronistic words in Spielberg’s “Lincoln”
- Notes towards a glossary for the fifth century
- Atlanticisms
- Common English
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..Interesting post, Abagond! Sidenote: How you ever heard about the “circumstantial evidence” concerning the famous “Dark (Black/African) Lady o’ Shakespeare’s works being credited with penning much of his well-known plays?
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Today William Shakespeare is the Google Doodle it’s been 400 years since his death in 1616. He is being celebrated in England at Stratford upon Avon today.
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I like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s monologue and the three witches or the weird sisters. “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble.
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