"On the Bard's birthday, is Shakespeare still relevant?"

Alexandra Petri presents this question in her article. If you can't wait to unwrap the answer, take a peek at this list.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 5's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: As You Like It, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Is Shakespeare still relevant, Shakespeare marathon, Iraq learns from Shakespeare, How Shakespeare Changed Everything, Kentucky inmates turned actors, Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, Texting Makes U Stupid, give the Bard the heave-ho
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. stipulate
    make an express demand or provision in an agreement
    Soon, if we want to do a modern staging of his work, we'll have to stipulate that "In fair Verona, where we lay our scene/The cell reception was spotty/From ancient grudge that brake the AT&T."
  2. malapropism
    misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar
    Autocorrect replaces malapropism.
  3. imply
    suggest that someone is guilty
    When your coworker implies that Desdemona is cheating on you with Cassio, you don't go ballistic demanding handkerchiefs.
  4. consult
    seek information from
    To make it through his works, high school students are forced to consult books like "No Fear Shakespeare," which drains all the poetry out in the hopes of making him moderately comprehensible.
  5. adapt
    make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose
    Nobody else from the early 1600s still sees himself so regularly adapted.
  6. bardolatry
    the idolization of William Shakespeare
    Bardolatry seems infinitely old, but it is of comparatively recent vintage.
  7. apotheosis
    the elevation of a person, as to the status of a god
    The apotheosis was not instant.
  8. vogue
    the popular taste at a given time
    The sonnets weren't in vogue for years.
  9. pinnacle
    the highest level or degree attainable
    Shakespeare has only gradually clawed his way up to the pinnacle of English letters
  10. skittish
    unpredictably excitable, especially of horses
    As a historical figure, he is proverbially skittish.
  11. hack
    a mediocre writer, especially one who writes for hire
    Besides, the man was obviously a hack.
  12. prolific
    intellectually productive
    Nobody is as prolific as Shakespeare who thinks he's producing Great Lasting Works Of Genius.
  13. dither
    be undecided or uncertain
    Shakespeare is one of the few writers in history who, given the option of including pirates in a play, thinks, "Nah, you know what? I'd rather have this dithering hipster talk about mortality some more."
  14. relevant
    having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    Come to think of it, maybe he's never been more relevant.
  15. essence
    the choicest or most vital part of some idea or experience
    His plays still tell the truth, boiled down to their essences.
  16. villain
    someone who does evil deliberately
    He's a common vocabulary, a common set of heroes and villains and everyone in between.
  17. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    sometimes tightly knotted little ornate gardens of verse like "Midsummer Night's Dream"
  18. expanse
    a wide scope
    other times vast prosy expanses like "Hamlet"
  19. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
    In their proper place, the bright lines that have since sunk into cliche still retain their power to dazzle.
  20. adamant
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    Write what you know? Shakespeare adamantly didn't. But in the process, he wrote what we all know.
Created on Mon Sep 29 15:00:28 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Sep 30 18:23:40 EDT 2014)

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