There are so many wonderful words in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary that don’t get the attention they deserve. Let’s dust them off and bring them back
sheepbiter. n.s. [from sheepbite.] A petty thief
Next time someone steals your last chip you can say, ‘Hands off, you wretched sheepbiter!’
Example of this word in literature:
A playwright who may or may not have been Shakespeare wrote this in Twelfth Night
Fabian: Nay, I’ll come: if I lose a scruple of this sport, let me be boiled to death with melancholy.
Sir Toby Belch: Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly, rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame? (Act V)
[If by chance PR reads this, I’d be interested to know whether she thinks this word was invented by Shakespeare]
5 responses so far ↓
1 Rob // Aug 19, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Either way, you have to put them down once they have a taste for sheepbiting.
Would be honoured to contribute to ‘Sing a song’, but o the pressure.
2 squib // Aug 19, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Don’t feel under pressure Rob, just know that you will be joining a long line of illustrious sing a song writers, the likes of which the world has never seen before
3 franzy // Aug 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Go Ninj, Go.
4 PrimroseRoad // Aug 20, 2008 at 2:36 am
I think Shakespeare was simply the first person to write down a lot of words that had never been written down before. (I’m sure there are many words being used now that no one has ever transcribed.) Sheepbiter is, however, an excellent word, and will be from this point forward used to describe people who steal erasers from classrooms.
5 squib // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:38 am
So he was not only a playwright and poet but also an anthropological linguist in a manner of speaking… possibly from another galaxy?
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