Does Crystal discuss Shakespeare's use of nouns as verbs. That's a feature
of English, of course, but my (ungrounded) assumption has been that
Shakespeare  made extensive use of it, being the first to use many nouns as
verbs. Is that correct?  Discussion of computers & computing depends on the
usage. "Facebook," for example, is already a verb.

Carrol

> -----Original Message-----
> From: T. S. Eliot Discussion forum. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Nancy Gish
> Sent: Friday, February 15, 2013 1:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Piaculative--was A.Word.A.Day--chthonic
> 
> Dear David,
> 
> David Crystal, the linguist, in a book on Shakespeare's language, claims
that
> the idea that Shakespeare coined thousands of words is wrong: he did coin
> many, but many more are of this kind.
> Cheers,
> Nancy
> 
> 
> >>> David Boyd 02/15/13 1:59 PM >>>
> Interesting - have long wondered about this !
> 
> 
> On 15 February 2013 15:20, Nancy Gish <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> 
> 	The OED has "piacular," "piaculous," "piaculum," and "piacularity,"
so
> the word is not "invented" or coined: it is a transforming of parts of
speech
> or forms common in English--and more common I think in early modern
> English. Shakespeare did such transformations a lot.
> 	N
> 
> 	>>> "Rickard A. Parker" <[log in to unmask]> 02/15/13 5:42
> AM >>>
> 
> 	On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:24:15 +0000, David Boyd
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 	>Thinking of Eliot's deployment of 'piaculative' - did the adjective
> 	previously exist in dormant obscurity, or did Eliot just invent it?
> 
> 
> 	Probably just invented it. A Google search with terms to exclude
Eliot
> 	didn't find much either on the web or in books. I used:
> 	piaculative -pustular -eliot -translation -definition -poetry
>