On April 23, 1616, -- 404 years ago -- William Shakespeare died.
Centuries later, fans around the world honor him and his work with Shakespeare Day. April 23 is also World Book Day.
To celebrate the Bard of Avon, here are some fun facts about his life and legacy:
He invented words
There are at least 15 words that have origins with Shakespeare, according to Grammarly and the Oxford English Dictionary.
"Elbow" used as a verb? Credit his King Lear in 1608. Yes, he's also the first person to use "swagger" in Midsummer Night's Dream in 1600.
Here are other words Shakespeare invented:
- Bandit
- Critic
- Dauntless
- Dwindle
- Green-eyed (to describe jealousy)
- Lackluster
- Lonely
- Skim milk
- Unaware
- Uncomfortable
- Undress
- Unearthly
- Unreal
He loved flowers
As part of its Teach program, the BBC published "A day in the life of William Shakespeare," detailing what the celebrated bard did on any given day.
One part of his afternoon, researchers said, was stopping to smell the flowers. While oxlips were his favorite, historians found he referenced more than 50 different types of flowers in his works.
He wrote more than 150 sonnets
While Shakespeare is well-known for his plays, he also wrote 154 sonnets. The style of these works was so popular that the English sonnet form became more commonly known as a "Shakespearean sonnet."
You may be familiar with this line from Sonnet 116 from the "Fair Youth" sonnets (1-126):
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
He might not have been a great speller
Shakespeare was writing his plays and sonnets in a time before English spelling became standardized. According to BBC History Magazine, he was notoriously flexible with the spelling of certain words, including his own name. Researchers have found legal documents signed by him with his last name spelled Shaksper, Shakespe, Shakespere and Shakspeare.
And, someone even discovered an anagram of William Shakespeare -- "I am a weakish speller."
We don't know his birthday, but we know when he died
Historians aren't sure on which date Shakespeare was actually born. But, his death date (April 23) has also been credited as his birth date because of his baptism on April 26.
During this time, new babies were baptized on the next holy day or Sunday following their birth, according to the Folger Shakespeare Library.
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