WORDS SHAKESPEARE INVENTED THAT DIDN’T CATCH ON. J.C. on the NB page in the TLS (August 7) writes the following paragraph that contains a number of words that seem to have been coined by Shakespeare and are now not in common use:
“Attaskt with bringing obscure words back into use, we begnawed the matter, scratching our bubukles as we did so. Fellow researchers congreed that the conspectuity was immoment. Incorpsing our plantage in a mistempered account book, we were rewarded with oppugnancy, against which we offered no propugnation. Reprobance has seldom made us so rubious.”
J.C. fashioned the paragraph from a listing in TO BE OR NOT TO BE, a new book by Liz Evers. The spellcheck feature indicates that these are the words that are not in common use (I certainly have not previously encountered them):
attaskt, begnawed, bubukles, congreed, conspectuity, immoment, incorpsing, plantage, mistempered, oppugnancy, propugnation, reprobance, rubious.