Under a blue sky
Today dawned with a bright blue sky. To get into the Shakespeare challenge word Submerge, I did consider going to the local stream and photographing a couple of supermarket trollies under water. Instead, I took this image of a bluebell submerged under a blue sky.
The sky is now much cloudier but I am hoping for a clear sky later to photograph the full moon
Submerge
The Bard’s words have had a profound effect on modern English. Phrases like “love is blind,” “catch a cold,” “mind’s eye” and “heart of gold” are common to all English speakers alike. However, it’s Shakespeare’s words alone that might prove to be the most pervasive, and most surprising, of his contributions to the language.
You can thank Shakespeare the next time you use any words in the following list:
accommodation, amazement, apostrophe, assassination, bloody, bump, control (as a noun), countless, court-ship, critic/critical, dislocate, dwindle, eventful, exposure, fitful, generous, gloomy, housekeeping, hurry, impartial, indistinguishable, laughable, lonely, majestic, misplaced, monumental, obscene, pious, premeditated, radiance, road, sanctimonious, submerge, suspicious… and so many more.
Of course, not everything stuck.
You’re not likely to hear attasked, crants, dispunge, enactures, immoment, indigest, mirable, mistempered, palmy, plantage, rigol, smilets or virgined today.
Still, proving that he was ahead of his time, and FaceBook, Shakespeare did coin the verb “to friend” … and its subsequent conjugation “friended.”
Antony and Cleopatra: Act II Scene V Alexandria, Cleopatra’s palace
Messenger He's married, madam.
Cleopatra The gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still?
Messenger Should I lie, madam?
Cleopatra O, I would thou didst,
So half my Egypt were submerged and made
A cistern for scaled snakes!
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