It should come as no surprise that a book on etymology would mention Shakespeare, and NTC's Dictionary Of Word Origins contains quite a few references. The first mention of Shakespeare comes in the book's introduction. Author Adrian Room writes: "Exceptions to this rule are for quotations from those familiar old English classics, the Bible and Shakespeare. For biblical quotations, the texts are those of the Authorized Version of 1611, which many people still regard as the 'real' English version of the Bible. For Shakespeare, the quotations have been taken from the Oxford Standard Authors edition edited by W. J. Craig, first published in 1905 and since reprinted several times in different formats" (p. 7). Then we get into the actual words themselves. In fact, the very first entry, the word "abominable," contains a Shakespeare reference. Room writes: "For many years from medieval times it was believed that the word derived from Latin ab homine, 'from a man', in the sense 'inhuman', 'unnatural', and Shakespeare punned on the word with this supposed origin in Love's Labour's Lost where Holofernes, talking of Don Adriano's strange pronunciation, says: 'This is abhominable, which he would call abominable'. (See Act V, Scene i for some whimsical language play.) In fact the word comes from Latin abominari, 'to regard as an evil omen', from ab-, 'from' and omen, 'evil omen'" (p. 11). The next reference comes in the entry for "accomplice." "An accomplice is not so called as he is an 'accomplished' criminal, but because he is 'a complice', or simply an associate. This is now an obsolete word, but was still in use in the time of Shakespeare, where in Richard II Bolingbroke says that Bristol Castle is held by 'Bushy, Bagot, and their complices' (the 'caterpillars of the commonwealth')" (pages 11-12). Then in the entry for "aghast," Room writes: "The h was added, however, under the influence of 'ghastly', which means that the early spelling of the word was agast. This comes from the Old English verb gaestan, 'to frighten'. In Henry VI, Part I, Shakespeare makes a messenger, speaking of the overthrow of Talbot, say that 'All the whole army stood agaz'd on him', as if the origin was in gaze" (p. 12). In the entry for argosy, Room writes: "The word is a historic one, as is the concept. Only nine lines into Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, for example, there is a mention of 'argosies with portly sail'" (p. 16). In the entry for "baggage" Room writes, "Shakespeare was one of the first to use the word in its 'worthless woman' meaning, and at the very beginning of The Taming of the Shrew (the 'Induction'), Christopher Sly, when called a rogue by the Hostess, retorts, 'Y'are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues'" (p. 19). The entry for "bastard" of course contains a reference to King Lear, with Room writing: "The designation is often thought to derive from 'base'. Certainly Shakespeare seemed to think so, when in King Lear Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, declaims: 'Why bastard? wherefore base?... Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?'" (p. 22). The very next entry, "bated," also contains a Shakespeare reference: "The verb 'abate', meaning 'diminish' (originally 'beat down', from Old French abatre), was formerly often shortened to 'bate', and occurs in this form several times in Shakespeare, for example" (p. 22). The entry for "coign" also contains a reference to Shakespeare: "This particular phrase became memorable when it was used by Shakespeare in Macbeth, and Banquo describes Macbeth's castle in Inverness as a building favoured by the 'temple-haunting martlet' (i.e. swift): no jutty, frieze,/Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird/Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle" (p. 44). The next entry, for "coil," also refers to Shakespeare: "Because of Shakespeare's 'shuffle off this mortal coil' (in Hamlet's famous 'To be or not to be' speech), a mental picture emerges of some kind of encircling loop like a binding coil of rope. When you 'shuffle off the mortal coil' you die, of course, and this even more suggests an escape from some kind of mortal chains" (p. 44). The entry for "doll" also mentions Shakespeare: "The original meaning of 'doll' was 'mistress', hence Shakespeare's Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV, Part II" (p. 55). There is an entry for "fell," as in "at one fell swoop," which is all about Shakespeare. Room writes: "The word suggests 'fall', like the swoop of a pouncing bird of prey. In this Shakespearean phrase, however, 'fell' has the sense, now poetic in English, of 'evil', and the word is thus related to 'felon'. Probably the wrong association with a bird of prey is strengthened by the mention of particular birds in the extended quotation containing the phrase in the original, where in Macbeth the anguished Macbeth, learning of the murder of his wife and children, exclaims: 'All my pretty ones?/Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?/What! all my chickens and their dam/At one fell swoop?'" (p. 62). And yes, that entry contains a mistake. What Room meant to write was "the anguished Macduff," not "the anguished Macbeth," for it was Macbeth who ordered those murders. Macbeth is also mentioned in the entry for "fitful": "The word is said to exist in English simply because of its single occurrence in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macbeth, speaking of the dead Duncan, says that 'After life's fitful fever he sleeps well'" (p. 63). The entry for "halt" mentions Shakespeare: "This old-fashioned word, found in the Bible and (as a verb) in Shakespeare, is not related to the 'halt' that means 'stop', as if a halt person were one who constantly had to halt" (p. 78). The entry for "harebell" contains a Shakespeare reference: "In Shakespeare's Cymbeline, the 'azur'd harebell like thy veins' mentioned is actually a bluebell" (p. 80). The entry for the word "leave," as in "permission; holiday," refers to Shakespeare: "This is because it originally meant 'obtain permission to depart', and it occurs in this sense in Shakespeare's Richard II, where Bolingbroke says to the Lord Marshal, in the presence of the king: Then let us take a ceremonious leave/And loving farewell of our several friends" (p. 99). The word "manner," as in "to the manner born," refers to Shakespeare too: "But the phrase, which comes from Shakespeare, did not originally mean this, but 'destined to be subject to (whatever it is)', which is not quite the same thing. Here is the original, in which Hamlet refers to the king's habit of revelling at midnight: But to my mind - though I am native here/And to the manner born, - it is a custom/More honour'd in the breach than the observance. He means 'Although I was born here, and so have been obliged to accept the native way of doing things'" (pages 106-107). The entry for "marry," the exclamation, unsurprisingly mentions Shakespeare: "This famous Shakespearean word is nothing to do with the word that means 'get married'. It was used mainly for emphasis, and also to express agreement" (p. 107). The entry for "pansy" has contains a reference to Shakespeare. Room writes: "This tradition is referred to in poor, deranged Ophelia's words in Hamlet, when she says: 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts" (p. 124). Another flower word, "pink," contains a Shakespeare reference: "Such phrases as 'in the pink' and 'pink of condition' and even 'tickled pink' all derive indirectly from the plant, which was seen as a sort of 'flower of perfection'. The first recorded use of its name in this metaphorical sense comes in Shakespeare, where in Romeo and Juliet there is a nice little interchange:
Mercutio. Nay I am the very pink of courtesy.
Romeo. Pink for flower.
Mercutio. Right." (p. 132)
The entry for "pregnant," meaning "meaningful," contains a Shakespeare reference: "This was frequently used of an argument, and meant 'compelling', 'well-reasoned', even simply 'obvious'. Shakespeare used it in this sense in Othello, when Iago, seeking to discredit Cassio, Othello's lieutenant, says to Roderigo: 'Now, sir, this granted, as it is a most pregnant and unforced position, who stands so eminently in the degree of this fortune as Cassio does?'" (p. 138). In the entry for "rest" (in the phrase "God rest you merry, gentlemen"), there is a Shakespeare reference: "The greeting or wish expressed in the line was a standard one in Shakespeare's day, and in fact occurs in As You Like It, for example, where the 'country fellow' William takes his leave of Touchstone with the words, 'God rest you merry, sir'" (p. 148). The entry for "roam" also contains a Shakespeare reference: "Shakespeare, too, puns on the two words, as in Henry VI, Part I, where the following exchange occurs:
Bishop of Winchester. Rome shall remedy this.
Earl of Warwick. Roam thither then." (p. 149).
The entry for "shock-headed" contains a reference. Room writes: "One possibility is in the obsolete 'shough', 'shock' or 'shock-dog' that is mentioned in Macbeth, where Macbeth lists a variety of dog breeds and types: As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,/Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept [i/e/ called]/All by the name of dogs" (p. 158). The entry for "trump card" contains a reference as well: "Shakespeare uses the word in this sense, although metaphorically, in Anthony and Cleopatra, where Anthony says to his friend Eros, talking of Cleopatra: 'she, Eros, has/Packed cards with Caesar, and false-play'd my glory/Unto an enemy's triumph" (p. 176). And yes, Room writes "Anthony" rather than "Antony." The entry for "utterance" (as in the phrase 'to the utterance") contains a reference to Macbeth: "The now archaic phrase means 'to the bitter end', 'to the utmost limit', with one of its best known occurrences in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macbeth, defying Banquo, says: Rather than so, come fate into the list,/And champion me to the utterance!'" (p. 178). The entry for "while away" also contains a Shakespeare reference: "This variant spelling seems to have been additionally influenced, in former times, by association with such phrases as Shakespeare's 'beguile the day', 'beguile the time' (as in Twelfth Night, where Antonio recommends that Sebastian should 'beguile the time' by 'viewing the town' while he arranges food and board), as well as with similar phrases in other languages" (p. 185). The next entry, for "whippet," also contains a Shakespeare reference: "thus appearing rather incongruously, to modern eyes, in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, where Borachio says: 'I whipt me behind the arras'" (p. 185).
The bibliography lists a book whose title is a Shakespeare reference: "Owen, Denis, What's in a Name: A Look at the Origins of Plant and Animal Names, BBC Publications, London, 1985" (p. 193).
NTC's Dictionary Of Word Origins was published in 1991. My copy is a first edition hardcover.
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