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Time of India
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Shakespeare's 'creative spellings' gave us these 10 words we still can't live without
William Shakespeare, born in 16th-century Stratford-upon-Avon, England, didn't simply use language as a tool to tell tales, he wielded it like a master craftsman, shaping it to fit his vision. In fact, his name appears in various spellings across historical records, each reflecting the fluidity of language during that time. The English language in the 16th century wasn't standardised like it is today. People often wrote as they spoke, and spelling was a matter of personal choice. For an ordinary student struggling to get their English spelling right, it was a remarkable time to be alive. Or, if you were a wordsmith like Shakespeare, it offered endless possibilities to bend and meld words into unique contexts and usages. Shakespeare was no ordinary writer, his plays have shaped English literature, and so have his words. Even centuries after his death, they remain indispensable to the English language. Imagine what it would be like today if students were free to play with language in the way Shakespeare did. In modern classrooms, a paper full of such "creative spelling" would likely be defaced with red ink. Yet, what might be deemed 'creative spellings' or even 'mistakes' in a modern classroom, are precisely what have left a lasting legacy, one that both students and linguists continue to rever. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 Green Card Lottery Registration Now Open americ24 Undo 1. Eyeball (Henry VI, Part 1) Believe it or not, the word "eyeball" was Shakespeare's invention. Before his time, people simply used "eye," but he introduced "eyeball" to specifically describe the spherical structure of the eye. Was this intentional word-smithing or merely a quirky choice in the heat of dramatic expression? Perhaps both, but the result was a word we simply cannot imagine living without today. 2. Bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Imagine a world without the word "bedroom." Shakespeare combined the straightforward words "bed" and "room" in A Midsummer Night's Dream to give us the term we now use to describe our most personal space. Whether this was a grammatical "mistake" or an act of linguistic invention, this creative leap has certainly stood the test of time. 3. Swagger (Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream) Shakespeare didn't just write about kings and battles, he gave us an attitude. In Henry V, he coined "swagger", a word originally describing an arrogant strut. Today, it's evolved into a term for effortless confidence. Was it a playful jab at bravado or a stroke of linguistic genius? Either way, Shakespeare's "swagger" has strutted its way into modern slang. 4. Dwindle (Henry IV, Part 1, Macbeth) Why use a plain word when Shakespeare could shrink it into something new? In Macbeth, he conjured "dwindle", a poetic verb for slowly fading away. Did he mishear an older term, or was this a sly contraction? Whatever the case, this haunting word has dwindled its way into everyday speech. 5. Jaded (Henry VI, Part 2) "Jaded", that feeling of being thoroughly worn out or exhausted, first appeared in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2 . In this instance, Shakespeare didn't "misspell" anything; he introduced a fresh way of describing fatigue. By blending words and meaning, Shakespeare created a term that perfectly captured the weary, worn-out feeling we still experience today. 6. Green-Eyed (The Merchant of Venice, Othello) Shakespeare loved vivid imagery, and few phrases stick like "green-eyed monster" (jealousy) from Othello. While "green-eyed" itself wasn't entirely new, his dramatic personification turned it into a timeless expression. A playful twist on color and emotion? Absolutely. A "mistake"? Hardly, just another example of Shakespeare painting with words. 7. Bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew) Shakespeare possessed an incredible ability to conjure vivid, eye-catching imagery with his words. In The Taming of the Shrew , he coined "bedazzled', a word meaning to impress someone with overwhelming beauty or brilliance. What may have seemed like a playful misstep in his writing led to a dazzling, enduring term. 8. Sanctimonious (The Tempest) Who doesn't know a sanctimonious person, someone who presents themselves as morally superior, often in a rather hypocritical way? Shakespeare gave us this word in The Tempest . Was it a "spelling mistake," or was it an inspired bit of wordplay that added layers of irony to his characterisations? In any case, the term became essential for describing pretentious piety, and it's now commonplace in our vocabulary. 9. Grovel (Henry VI, Part II) To "grovel" means to lower oneself in humility or submission. Shakespeare employed this term in Henry VI, Part II , and it quickly caught on as a way to describe extreme humility. Whether it was a slip of the pen or deliberate wordplay, "grovel" remains in the language as a perfect descriptor of humbling oneself to an exaggerated degree. 10. Gloomy (Titus Andronicus) When Shakespeare used 'gloomy' in Titus Andronicus, he coined a term that would encapsulate dark moods and weather for centuries to come. His play was filled with tragedy and dark themes, and 'gloomy' perfectly captured that atmosphere. This evocative coinage gave us an indispensable way to describe emotional despair and dreariness. A legacy, an idol, a sea of language awaiting words to come alive If Shakespeare's legacy outshines that of many of his contemporaries, it is well deserved. The way he seized the opportunity to blend artistry with language gave him the freedom to invent words that the existing vocabulary simply couldn't hold. Shakespeare didn't just command language as if it were his own; he reshaped it forever, leaving behind a linguistic legacy for generations to come. So, next time you're at a loss for words, why not channel the lost spirit of Shakespeare? Embrace your creativity, let language be what it was always meant to be: a tool for creation, communication, persuasion, and making an impact that, like Shakespeare's, endures. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
Boston Globe
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Ayotte vetoes N.H. book ban legislation, citing concern about subjective standards around age-appropriateness
Ayotte said she doesn't think the state should get involved in 'addressing questions of literary value and appropriateness,' particularly with legislation that includes 'monetary penalties based on subjective standards.' Advertisement While proponents said Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up 'Every student deserves to see themselves reflected in the pages of their books,' said Megan Tuttle, president of the NEA New Hampshire, a teachers union, in a statement applauding Ayotte's decision. 'We hope this book ban bill veto represents a changing tide at the State House and call on lawmakers to listen to Granite Staters who overwhelmingly oppose classroom censorship efforts,' she added. This legislation would have required local school boards to adopt policies for handling complaints from parents who allege a particular piece of content is 'harmful to minors.' Those unhappy with the local board's handling of a complaint would then have been able to file an appeal with the state board of education, whose seven members are appointed by the governor. Advertisement Although Under existing state law — which borrows language from the US Supreme Court's What implications the phrase 'for minors' might carry for discussions of age-appropriateness would seem to be open to interpretation. The legislation said complaints would be decided first by the school principal, then by the local school board, and ultimately by the state board of education. Barrett M. Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, said on Tuesday that his group questioned whether HB 324 was even constitutional. In some ways, its vague standard looks like the state's so-called 'divisive concepts' law, which a federal judge Christina said the NHSBA appreciates Ayotte's veto as an affirmation that 'local education decisions are best made my locally elected school board members, and not the New Hampshire legislature or the State Board of Education.' Related : Advertisement Under HB 324, if a school were to fail to follow the correct process, then anyone claiming to be aggrieved would have been authorized to sue for $1,000 per violation, plus costs and legal fees, according to the legislation. And educators would have faced the potential for professional discipline. Ayotte said she was concerned the legislation had envisioned potentially extensive civil action, 'which could open the door to unnecessary litigation from out-of-state groups.' Ayotte said an If lawmakers conclude the current law isn't being implemented adequately, the appropriate course would be to amend that law, Ayotte said. Republican state lawmakers — who hold a comfortable majority in the 400-seat House and a super-majority in the 24-seat Senate — had framed their support for HB 324 as an anti-smut campaign. 'We're not talking about 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' or some poetry that has some innuendos in it,' Republican Senator Victoria L. Sullivan of Manchester said during debate on the bill. 'We're talking about flat-out pornography.' Republican Senator Daryl A. Abbas of Salem similarly said this legislation aimed to get rid of obscene materials like 'Hustler' magazine, not ban books like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or any of William Shakespeare's works. Advertisement His point was rhetorical. No one claimed school libraries offer 'Hustler' to kids. But others have offered more literal examples of materials they view as inappropriate for K-12 school libraries. Republican Representative Glenn Cordelli of Tuftonboro, the prime sponsor of HB 324, cited New Hampshire writer Jodi L. Picoult, whose acclaimed novel ' Picoult joined with other bestselling authors who live in New Hampshire to In a wry post Advertisement 'Now that kids can't get porn on their phones while at school,' he said, 'at least they can still find it in the library.' Steven Porter can be reached at
Scotsman
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Theatre reviews: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare and Marlowe benefit from a spot of theatrical magic, writes Joyce McMillan Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A Midsummer Night's Dream Glasgow Botanic Gardens **** James Boal as Oberon in in A Midsummer Night's Dream Doctor Faustus Glasgow Botanic Gardens *** Can it be that in the age of internet, with all its invisible influences and influencers putting a girdle around the earth in far less than 40 minutes, it somehow becomes easier to believe in Shakespeare's fabulous fairy creatures – or at least in their power to change human hearts and minds in an instant? Adam Donaldson as Faustus and Sam Stopford as Mephistopheles in Dr Faustus as part of Bard in the Botanics (Picture: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan) Perhaps; at any rate, what's clear is that the 2025 Bard In The Botanics season launches with a truly delightful and completely persuasive version of A Midsummer Night's Dream that puts Shakespeare's powerful fairy creatures centre stage. In Bard director Gordon Barr's production, an 11-strong company of young actors take to the stage in a version which – unusually for this company – makes no change to the original gender balance of Shakespeare's comedy about four bewildered lovers lost in the forest, and vulnerable to fairy magic. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There is, though, a crucial switch between fairy king and queen – James Boal's gorgeous green-clad Oberon, and Claire Macallister's proud Titania – as to who drives the plot, and wins the war between them. And with veteran Bard favourite Allan Steele joining the cast as Bottom, star of the troop of tradesman actors rehearsing a play for the duke's wedding, the stage is set – not least thanks to Carys Hobbs's lush green design – for a glorious romp through Shakespeare's tale. Lola Aluko and Star Penders make a fine comic pairing as the female lovers Hermia and Helena, while Bailey Newsome turns in an outstanding comic performance as Peter Quince, the exasperated director of the tradesman's plays, and Steele and Boal extract maximum hilarity from the potion-induced romance between Oberon and Bottom, magically transformed into an ass. None of this would work half so well, though, without the remarkable presence of Benjamin Keachie's Glasgow Puck, a gleefully irreverent spirit who combines power and good looks with a terrific eloquence in both Shakespearean verse and Glasgow patter. As Titania's servant, Puck is the spirit who makes and mars the whole drama, with his mischievous mistakes, and his final skill in rectifying them all; and he leads this joyful Dream to a witty and rousing conclusion, roundly celebrated by the subway-strike crowd at the bus stop afterwards. 'It was Shakespeare,' said one to a bystander. 'But it was just so funny. We loved it!' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In the elegant space of the Kibble Palace, meanwhile, Barr's associate director Jennifer Dick offers a thoughtful but inconclusive 80-minute version of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, a play written just a couple of years before A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the 1590's; but arguably more modern, in its fraught relationship with the supernatural powers it invokes. In Dick's version, Doctor Faustus is a medic dressed in modern-day scrubs; but as in the original play, he yearns for power and excitement beyond what his worthwhile profession can offer. The main theatrical feature of Dick's version is the intense conflict she imagines between a melancholy and charismatic Sam Stopford as the demon Mephistopheles, who encourages Faust to sell his soul to the devil in return for glamorous magical powers, and a fragile, yet fiercely memorable Rebecca Robin as Faust's good angel, constantly urging repentance and a return to God. In best horror-movie style, these two forces challenge and torture one another, sometimes possessed by strange voices and movements; while between them, Adam Donaldson struggles slightly to pull the focus back to the magnificent, agonised poetry of Faust's descent into hell. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marlowe's play, though, involves a powerful critique of the male fascination for flashy technology, or 'magic', that offers transient and superficial forms of power; and although the imagined struggle for Faust's soul portrayed here sometimes sits at a slight tangent to that theme, the show still offers a haunting sense of a human soul destroyed by wrong choices, in ways that carry huge resonances across our damaged 21st century world.
San Francisco Chronicle
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Your dose of summer rejuvenation? Fairies, love juice and Shakespeare
In Shakespeare, sleep is dangerous. Close your eyes, and you might wake up a different person. Or species. An ass might morph into an actual ass — as in a donkey. Even worse, a fairy queen might fall in hee-hawing, prancing lust for that animal thanks to a heaping dose of magic love juice. More prosaically, that tunnel vision a young person has for the object of their desire? In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' love's sightlines have blind turns. Marin Shakespeare Company's take on the hormone-drenched comedy, which I saw Friday, June 27, at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, is a pratfall feast. In Bridgette Loriaux's direction, four young Athenian lovers, the fairies that get up in their business and a troupe of rank amateur thespians preparing a skit for a wedding are always crawling through each other's legs, dragging each other around on the stage floor and munching on their own garments in attempt to rein themselves in. Demetrius, played by Ixtlan, makes a squirmy-wormy face as if they could escape the amorous clutches of Elena Wright's Helena via grimace alone. Here, lust is ugly. Spurned over and over, Helena rises like a zombie coming back to life, pledging, 'I'll follow thee,' with vocal cords scraping the bowels of the earth. When Adrian Deane's Lysandra turns overnight on Hermia (Storm White), her sometime lover, insulting her as 'You bead, you acorn,' Deane ekes out the words the way a boiling tea kettle starts to whistle. If Ray Archie's sound design lingers too long, like the looping soundtrack of a video game level you can't beat, you can seek visual respite in Bethany Deal Flores' costumes. The script says that Athenians are recognizable by their mode of dress, and she shows why: Clad all in white, with chunky heels, futuristic cuts, jaunty angles and the occasional feather, they look as if 'Star Trek' characters had been crossed with elves. The underclass acting troupe crosses 'Alice in Wonderland' with steampunk. Think goggles, aviator caps and coveralls, but with a top hat that's actually a spool of thread, a bandolier studded with more spools and an all-white bicycle decorated with lights. But in this 'Midsummer,' under every surface frolic lies a pool of sadness. You see it in the way Charisse Loriaux (sister to the director) as Athenian queen Hippolyta observes lovers denied the fulfillment she enjoys; in the way the foolish Nick Bottom (Steve Price) awakens from his time as a donkey and wonders at the fairy queen's love he enjoyed; in the way the show acknowledges — with a wordless scene of packed suitcases and a huffy exit — that not everyone gets a happy ending. The thing is, that character never awakens the way the others do, preferring to stay in his comforting darkness of hate and rage. When the four lovers finally rouse themselves from their turbulence, lighting designer Jon Tracy makes it look like dawn is peeking through a leafy canopy, enchanting the emerald forest floor of Nina Ball's set design. There's a 'fairy time' of night, in Shakespeare's world and ours. If it's when someone might rub a potion on your eyes, it's also a nightly chance for rejuvenation and renewal. 'Lord, what fools these mortals be!' Puck (Rob Seitelman) complains of the Athenians' thundercloud of passions. But the play's true fool, the one we pity the most, is the one who seals off his heart.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The most otherworldly, mysterious forms of lightning on Earth
Our atmosphere is like one big electrical circuit: Thunderstorms are the batteries that charge it up, and lightning is the current flowing through it. On the ground we see evidence of this circuit when lightning cracks and strikes the ground, or when it lights up deep inside a thundercloud, but high above the clouds lies a secret electrical zoo full of sprites, elves, and jets. These fantastical terms refer to light displays called transient luminous events or TLEs that occur in Earth's upper atmosphere during thunderstorms. 'TLEs are mysterious, beautiful, and uniquely different from conventional lightning, yet they connect weather, space, and electricity in one dramatic moment. They occur high above the clouds, almost silently, and are invisible to most people—but they reflect powerful processes unfolding deep within thunderstorms,' says Hailiang Huang, a Ph.D. student at the University of Science and Technology of China who studies TLEs. The very first photographic observations of these events in 1989 captured red flashes streaking across the sky in the blink of an eye. The displays were dubbed red sprites, inspired by characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a medley of other fairytale names followed, as researchers discovered new types of TLEs. Today, scientists are still working to understand these curious phenomena—what causes them, how often they happen, and what they can tell us about Earth's atmosphere. Just like storm chasing, some photographers have taken to sprite chasing, searching for elusive red sprites and other TLEs above nighttime thunderstorms. (See rare colorful lightning sprites dance above a hurricane.) Red sprites have been observed off the coast of Europe and over the U.S. Great Plains, but in 2022, astrophotographers Angel An and Shuchang Dong captured 105 red sprites, the largest number ever seen in a single thunderstorm in South Asia, researchers recently reported in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science. 'Red sprites are the most iconic [of TLEs],' says Huang, the lead author of the paper. They flash into existence for just a fraction of a second in a spindly root-like system of red streaks. The phenomenon is caused by positive lightning that strikes the ground, creating an electric field that reaches up into the atmosphere, about 50 to 90 kilometers above Earth. On the Tibetan Plateau, north of the Himalayas, thunderstorms are very common. The dramatic changes in elevation produce intense convection in the atmosphere and the churning of wet air creates clouds—a rich laboratory for studying TLEs. Yet none had been recorded there until An and Dong's storm imagery in 2022. Huang and his collaborator Gaopeng Lu, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China, developed a method to synchronize the videos and photos that An and Dong took on the Tibetan Plateau. Using satellite data and maps of the stars in the night sky to determine the timestamps of each video frame, the team linked around 70 percent of verified sprites to the parent lightning that triggered them. To Huang, the results demonstrate the scientific value of amateur observations. 'It's exciting that this field brings together professional scientists and passionate amateurs, working side by side to understand something so ephemeral, yet so profound.' Not only did the photographers capture a significant number of red sprites, the Himalayan storm also featured even rarer TLEs called jets and ghosts. The team found 16 secondary jets, powerful columns of often blue or purple light darting upwards into the sky, and at least four ghosts, green hazy glows that can sometimes hover above red sprites. 'While sprites [and other TLEs] may appear delicate and silent in the upper atmosphere, they are often linked to powerful, sometimes devastating weather systems,' says Huang. 'Understanding them not only satisfies our curiosity about the upper atmosphere, but also helps us learn more about the storms we face here on Earth.' (Here's the science behind the world's strongest lightning strikes.) Different types of TLEs vary based on altitude, the type of lightning at play, and the chemicals present in that part of the atmosphere, but the exact causes of each type of TLE are yet to be confirmed. Since 2022, NASA's Spritacular project has tried to capture this variety, also relying on data from amateurs—hundreds of citizen scientists. 'I had been seeing wonderful images captured by the public all around the globe, shared sporadically over the internet and the science community was mostly unaware of these captures,' says Burcu Kosar, an atmospheric physicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who leads the project. 'Spritacular was born to bridge this gap, connecting the public with the science community, by creating the first crowdsourced database of sprites and other TLEs.' Spritacular invites volunteers to submit images they've captured of TLEs all around the world, and they've collected over 700 submissions from almost 900 users across 20 different countries. Participants can also help comb through the database, identifying sprites from users' images or those collected from the International Space Station. The project aims to collect a broad data set of recorded TLEs, since most of the previous sightings have only been one-offs. If they can collect a large enough amount of observations, then Kosar and her team can start to identify patterns and trends in the data and also study rarer TLEs like ghosts and jets. Understanding TLEs on Earth could also inform our investigations of other planets. Data from NASA's Juno mission suggests that sprites and mysterious rings of light called elves also occur in Jupiter's atmosphere. (Does lightning strike on Venus?) Since TLEs are so fleeting in nature, Kosar and her collaborator József Bór, a TLE researcher at the Institute of Earth Physics and Space Science in Hungary, agree that their project's strength lies in the people of Spritacular. 'I think it is the power of the community which makes Spritacular very strong for TLE-related scientific work,' says Bór. The community effort that drives TLE research could help answer one of the most pressing questions around sprites and other TLEs—how climate change may impact their occurrence. 'Rising global temperatures due to climate change will impact thunderstorm intensity and frequency, this will also lead to stronger lightning activity, all of which are precursors for TLE activity,' says Kosar. 'Details are still an active area of research, but studying TLEs could become even more important for tracking how our atmosphere is changing.' Working with climate and space scientists to understand how changing storm patterns might influence TLE activity globally is next up for the Chinese team, too. For Huang, it's an exciting field to be part of: 'It feels like exploring an atmospheric frontier. Every observation is like capturing a rare and fleeting signal from the edge of space—visually stunning and physically meaningful.'
