First recorded use - does not mean Shakespeare invented the word or were the first to use it. Shakespeare was just really prolific and has been studied a lot, s

First recorded use - does not mean Shakespeare invented the word or were the first to use it. Shakespeare was just really prolific and has been studied a lot, so is often the first citation chosen. There is a good post about this over at AskHistorians: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/99oio9/if_william_shakespeare_made_up_new_words_for_his/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/99oio9/if_wi... (Follow the references if you are interested in the subject) > Unfortunately, the citations have very frequently been misread: in particular, the ‘first citation’ for a word, or sub-meaning of a word, has mistakenly been taken as being the ‘first use’ – the earliest example of the word the OED readers could find. This is unfortunate, because the OED readers and editors were not making claims about priority: citations are exemplary rather than evidential. (...) > This means that Shakespeare features as the first citation for a very large number of head words and sub-meanings – and this has mistakenly been taken as evidence that Shakespeare ‘invented’ these words and meanings.