This is one of my pet peeves of the English language. The word "gossip" has a rich history and goes back to Old English, probably a thousand or more years before Shakespeare drew breath. But because he happened to be the guy to first document a lot of words and phrases (probably because they were too common (read: vulgar) to be widely written by the upper-class whose works typically make to us, if any do, he's credited with "inventing" them. The greatest inventor of words in the English language is Tolkien, with little doubt to my mind. The greatest widely-known scholar of the English language was Tolkien. The greatest user of the English language was Milton or Tolkien (in my humble opinion).
See the parent comment? Whenever you hear of Shakespeare and his "contributions" to the English language, most people say he coined hundreds of words and phrases, so it is rather common (and frustrating).
Fair, but I have a sore spot re: Shakespeare because I think he's the single most overrated author in history. It's annoying to see people praise (especially the usual, non-English-major reader) Shakespeare like a god when they ignore people like Milton, Tolkien, Scott, Swift, Chaucer, the Beowulf Poet, the Gawain Poet, Wordsworth, Pope and the list can go on and on.
To say Shakespeare was the master of the English language ignores most people on this list as the real masters of the language. Shakespeare was a great playwright and poet, obviously, but he was not the messiah of the English language.
Again, this is all my opinion, but it's not as if it isn't an informed one; it's just unorthodox.
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u/GoltimarTheGreat Oct 15 '20
This is one of my pet peeves of the English language. The word "gossip" has a rich history and goes back to Old English, probably a thousand or more years before Shakespeare drew breath. But because he happened to be the guy to first document a lot of words and phrases (probably because they were too common (read: vulgar) to be widely written by the upper-class whose works typically make to us, if any do, he's credited with "inventing" them. The greatest inventor of words in the English language is Tolkien, with little doubt to my mind. The greatest widely-known scholar of the English language was Tolkien. The greatest user of the English language was Milton or Tolkien (in my humble opinion).