Dear John I'm sure you're right in all you say but the problem with forescore/fourscore remains. May I suggest that as with several other words (e.g. bare and bear, here and hear), we have to look at the sense and make our best judgements in many of the documents we look at. Consistency was not the order of the times in documents before the 18/19th century and it is not likely and also not impossible where probate inventories are concerned that forescore sheep would mean 19 sheep. Generally speaking, the most likely reading would be 80. Your information on the possibility of it meaning 19 sheep, however, will make me look at the value of these items far closer than before in order to work out which is the most likely number of sheep, or whatever other article is in question. Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Barton" <bartonlander@free.net.nz> To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:33 PM Subject: [OEL] Inventing words > >Well, I'm not at all sure Shakespeare *invented* *any* word. > > A fascinating book "The Meaning of Everything - the Story of the Oxford > English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester (OUP, 2003) states that between 1590 > and 1610 around 6,000 new words were being added to the lexicon [more > correctly, 'dictionary'] every year. More than at any time in history save > possibly now". I grant that this dictionary (I have only the 8 volumes of > the New English Dictionary up to 'Shyzle') does not attempt to 'beat the > date' exhaustively. But in the last 120 years, not a lot of earlier usages > have been found for most words. > e.g. none for 'accommodation', Othello 1604; 'laughable' in Merchant of > Venice, hyphenations such as 'baby-eyes', 'pall-mall', and 'ill-turned'. > Shakespeare was not the only culprit, everyone was doing it. But he can't be > beaten yet as earliest for 'dislocate', 'dwindle', 'submerged', etc. And of > course "whoreson beetle-headed flap-ear'd knave" (Taming of the Shrew). > But the gist of my email was whether the Winter's Tale passage indicates an > author other than the man from Stratford, born on 19th April [1564], seven > days before the known baptism date of 26th April, 43 miles (40,000 fathoms) > from the Bristol Channel. If so, quite a lot of history (or tradition) needs > to be re-written. > I've submitted this word (forescore as 19) to the OED for inclusion in the > forthcoming 3rd edition. > > John Barton > > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > OLD-ENGLISH Web Page > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ > >