Task 2: Searching for Elegant Terms
Henry Cockeram proposed in The English Dictionarie (1623) to find more elegant and polished terms for common words by anglicising an amount of Latin entries from two contemporary Latin-English dictionaries. Here are some examples for these neologisms that Shakespeare already used in his plays (cf. Nevalainen 2006, 39-40).
a) Give an equivalent for the refined term “amity” in the example from King Lear!
King Lear: II. iv. l. 1535
Regan: I dare avouch it, sir. What, fifty followers?
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How in one house
Should many people, under two commands,
Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.
Please click on the correct answer!
loyalty
friendship
solidarity
b) Give an equivalent for the refined term “fertility” in the example from Richard II!
Richard II: III. iv. l. 1893
Gardener: Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.
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fruitfulness
organic substances
blossmings
c) Give an equivalent for the refined term “felicity” in the example from Hamlet!
Hamlet: V. ii. l. 4002
Hamlet: As th'art a man,
Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll ha't.
O good Horatio, what a wounded name
(Things standing thus unknown) shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story. [March afar off, and shot within.]
What warlike noise is this?
Please click on the correct answer!
fun
grief
happiness