Shakespeare's Neologisms

Aidance

1593

(N) Assistance, aid; (occasionally) an instance of this.
First seen in Venus and Adonis
“For louers say, the heart hath treble wrong, When it is bard the aydance of the tongue.” (349)

Enjail

1593

(V) To shut up in or as if in prison.
First seen in Richard III
“Within my mouth you have enjailed my tongue” (1.3.160)

Friend

1599

(V) Befriend (someone).
First seen in Henry V
“Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now” (4.5.17)

Guardage

1604

(N) Keeping, guardianship
First seen in Othello
“Whether a maide so tender, faire, and happy,..Would euer haue..Runne from her gardage [1623 Guardage] to the sooty bosome Of such a thing as thou?” (1.2.71)

Elbow

1606

(V) To shove aside by pushing with
First seen in King Lear
“A sovereign shame so elbows him: his own unkindness” (4.3.48)

Scuffle

1606

(N) A short, confused fight or struggle at close quarters.
First seen in Antony and Cleopatra
“His captain's heart, which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst the buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, and is become the bellows and the fan to cool a gipsy's lust.” (1.1.7)

Acture

1609

(N) The process of acting; action.
First seen in 1609 in the sonnet Louers Complaint
“With acture they may be, Where neither Party is nor trew nor kind.” (185)

Neglection

1609

(N) Negligence, neglect
First seen in Pericles
“If neglection should therein make me vile.” (8.20)

Fleshment

1609

(N) The action of ‘fleshing’; hence, the excitement resulting from a first success.
First seen in King Lear
“And in the fleshment of this dead exploit, Drew on me here againe.” (2.2.120)

Inaudible

1623

(A) Unable to be heard.
First seen in All's Well that Ends Well
“Let's take the instant by the forward top; for we are old, and on our quick'st decrees the inaudible and noiseless foot of Time steals ere we can effect them.” (5.3.41)