For your cursing pleasure: a Shakespeare diss. It’s a word often asking about because if its use in one of Shakespeare’s most well known speeches.

drab (n.) IPA Pronunciation: /dræb/
harlot, slut, whore

HAMLET
Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!
- Hamlet (II.ii)

This is a portion of Hamlet’s “O, What what a rogue and peasant slave am I” speech, and as I mentioned before, it is one of Shakespeare’s most famous.
Drab has a certain sound to it that is worse than whore. Shakespeare’s lines build in intensity, and this excerpt is no exception. You’ll notice that Hamlet first says, “like a whore” and continues later with, “like a very drab,” and the audience should get the idea that “whore” is a nice word in comparison to “drab.” With this building intensity and the words getting worse as Hamlet continues, we can imagine that a “scullion” is the muck at the bottom of the lake, but that’s a word of the day for another day.

It sounds like a website. “Get your FREE somethingsomething NOW! at eNOW.com!” It’s not. Not that I know of at least.

enow (adv.) IPA Pronunciation:
enough

KING HENRY V
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss;
- Henry V (IV.iii)

Apparently enow.com is a website, I checked. Nothing interesting though. Enow is a word when reading is easy to think it’s a misprint, but it’s printed several times in almost all editions, so maybe not.

I’m not talking about what holds the ends of your belt together. You might buckle with your buckle to buckle, but that’s not very Shakespearean, is it?

buckle (v.) IPA Pronunciation:

grapple, fight, combat

CHARLES
In single combat though shalt buckle with me.
- Henry VI, part 1 (IV.iv)

Here, Charles the King of France is challenging Joan of Arc so that she may prove she has divine support before letting her lead his men into battle. It’s always good to test that sort of thing instead of taking their word for it.

This word’s meaning can usually deduced from the context. But don’t get confused, buckle is also used with the definition you’re more familiar with.

Since you have come here looking for information, I shall reguerdon you with some.

reguerdon (n.) IPA Pronunciation:
recompense, reward, repayment

KING HENRY VI
Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
And, in reguerdon of that duty done,
I gird thee with the valiant sword of York
- Henry VI (III.i)

Also can used as a verb, exactly like the word reward. The word guerdon has the same meaning and uses as it does with the prefix re. The ability to drop or add a syllable and keep the same meaning is a useful tool to have to keep to the ten syllable meter of the verse.

Pronounced like what you might do at a casino, but not related. This is a popularly asked about word in Shakespeare. The meaning isn’t always obvious from the context and isn’t familiar to everyone’s eyes. This is a special post because this is a popular and versatile word.

gambol IPA Pronunciation: /’gæm.bl/
(n.) leap, caper, antic

COUNTRYMAN
She’ll do the rarest gambols
- Two Noble Kinsmen (III.v)

(v.) shy away, leap away

HAMLET
… I the matter will re-word, which madness
Would gambol from
- Hamlet (III.iv)

(adj.) playful, sportive, spirited

FALSTAFF
such other gambol faculties ‘a has that show a weak mind and an able body
- Henry IV, Part 2 (II.iv)

Also gambold is used as a noun, which means entertainment. The most common place to find this word that I have not yet mentioned is in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Titania tells her fairies “Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; / Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;” – (III.i). Referring of course to Nick Bottom, the ass. Titania is asking the fairies to entertain him.

“WHAT!?!?!?!” You ask? This is the longest word used in any of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s also the longest word in the English language that alternates consonants and vowels. Some think that it’s a meaningless word based on the context used in the play, but that’s not so!

Honorificabilitudinitatibus (n.) IPA Pronunciation:
the state of being able to achieve honours

COSTARD
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon.
- Love’s Labour’s Lost (V.i)

This word has a lot of baggage. Some have tried to rearrange the letters of what they thought was a made up word to create messages in latin to “prove” that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays. I won’t discuss that too much right now, personally I think it’s just trying too hard to create evidence for what some people want to believe. The facts are that this is plural form of the real medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas.

Now this isn’t a word you can use everyday. This isn’t even a word you need to know the definition of when you hear or read it, any long word could have taken its place, though I thought it’d be fun one to share. Practice reading it for a little while. How long does it take you to be able to pronounce it with ease?

Back to a random selection, because it’s fun.
younker (n.) IPA Pronunciation:
1. young man
2. greenhorn, juvenile

RICHARD
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm’d like a younker prancing to his love!
- Henry VI, Part 3 (II.i)

The meaning seems to be a little derogatory. The literal meaning is #1, a young man but the implied meaning is often one who is inexperienced, foolish, immature.

Do you have any kecksies in your garden? It’s not a word, like the past few that you can use every day… but it’s good to know when you come across this word in a play.

kecksie (n.) IPA Pronunciation: /’keksi/
a type of hollow-stalked plant

BURGUNDY
…nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
- Henry V (V.ii)

You may have noticed that the last few words of the day are from Henry V. My word selection is no longer quite so random. I’m going through the plays and writing down the unusual words that I find interesting to share with you, the gentle reader.