William Shakespeare was unquestionably one of the greatest influencers of English literature. He was also an unequaled contributor to the English language itself. Many of the words you have used in the past 24 hours had their origin in his fertile imagination.

A common myth is that Shakespeare created 1,700 words. This is a bit of an exaggeration. While he may be the first documented user of many words, it is a leap to say that he actually invented them. Read a good discussion on this matter here.

While 1,700 words is a stretch, it is well established that 422 words of the English lexicon were created by Shakespeare. Here they are: