90 Near Disasters
Consider, for a few moments, where the English language would be without Shakespeare. Would you still be going to your bedroom, or would someone have had to come up with a better way to describe the space in which we sleep? (Incidentally, the current definition isn't what Shakespeare actually meant.) You might not enter into negotiations, or be widowed, or gossip with friends. Some of us would have watched Terminator 2: The Last Judgment rather than Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In hopping over someone or something, you wouldn't leapfrog. In suggesting things, you wouldn't hint. Sunrise would not be dawn, and lunar illumination would not produce moonbeams. There would be no winters of our discontent (likewise, no summers of our discontent, or evenings, or even moments), nor would we spend our winters downstairs by the fire. "Elbow" would be a joint, not a verb, and you wouldn't be dislocating yours, let alone have an opportunity to puke because of the pain.
Of course, all of this is sheer speculation. It's often been suggested that a group of uneducated monkeys, given enough time and enough typewriters, could produce Hamlet. Estimates vary as to how much ground we would have to make up, but there's no reason that the human race couldn't stumble across the words that Shakespeare may or may not have pioneered if by some happenstance the Bard had never existed or never put pen to paper. Neither is there a guarantee that, without Shakespeare, we could have come up with a word as simple as "eyeball."
Now if you'll excuse me, Hal's gotten into the cutlery drawer, and I don't care for the look he's giving Hotspur.
[OOC: Just to make life easier, I've put all the words that Nik's addressing in terms of Shakespeare's contributions to common usage in bold.]
Of course, all of this is sheer speculation. It's often been suggested that a group of uneducated monkeys, given enough time and enough typewriters, could produce Hamlet. Estimates vary as to how much ground we would have to make up, but there's no reason that the human race couldn't stumble across the words that Shakespeare may or may not have pioneered if by some happenstance the Bard had never existed or never put pen to paper. Neither is there a guarantee that, without Shakespeare, we could have come up with a word as simple as "eyeball."
Now if you'll excuse me, Hal's gotten into the cutlery drawer, and I don't care for the look he's giving Hotspur.
[OOC: Just to make life easier, I've put all the words that Nik's addressing in terms of Shakespeare's contributions to common usage in bold.]