Buzz
You may be surprised to discover how many words first created by Shakespeare (or, more accurately, words with origins tracing back to Shakespeare) are commonly used in modern conversations—from advertising to eyeball.
While the Bard is undoubtedly the most prolific creator of new terms in literary history, he's not the only one. Thanks to John Milton, we have the ideal word to describe Black Friday shopping and Times Square on New Year’s Eve: pandemonium. And Norman Mailer gave us factoid, which, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t mean “tiny fact.”
Pandemonium, factoid, and 10 other terms created by authors are featured in Mytour’s new book, The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words: A Miscellany of Obscure Terms, Bizarre Phrases, & Surprising Etymologies, available now. To mark its release, we've hidden all the terms in the word search above (you can also view it in larger format here). How fast can you find them?
Explore the history behind each term below, with the answer key provided further down.
Click to view a larger version. | Mytour/Indelible EditionsAuthor-Created Words: The Answer Key
Click here to view a larger version. | Mytour/Indelible Editions
