A.Word.A.Day --Shakespeare

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Today's Word

Shakespeare

PRONUNCIATION:

(SHAYK-speer)

MEANING:

verb intr.:
1. To act in a play, movie, etc.
2. To attend a performance of Shakespeare’s plays.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who wrote more than three dozen plays. Earliest documented use: 1896.

NOTES

Not only has Shakespeare become a word in the English language, many of his characters have as well. Meet some of them here and here.

USAGE:

“Whenever I am not on tour with my ballet troupe or Shakespearing my way on the theatrical circuit, you will find me in my East Village haunt and my greatest find ever, the Kiev Restaurant. -Terrence Deitch.”
Grace Yen; Bargain Hunters 2004; Back Stage (New York); Aug 20-26, 2004.

“The set-up will not allow attendees to spread out blankets for simultaneous picnicking and Shakespearing.”
James Keller; Snatch’d Out of the Jaws of Death; The Santa Fe New Mexican; Aug 16, 2013.

See more usage examples of Shakespeare in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

When I invented the web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going to end in the USA. ... Democracy depends on freedom of speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it. Let's see whether the United States is capable of acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interest of large corporations. I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated. -Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web (b. 8 Jun 1955) source

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