Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamingInfinity
Whoah! Now it makes sense. I'm going to need to go and dig up some stuff.
The word assassin wasn't invented until Shakespeare created it, for those who didn't know. That's my lame contribution to the thread.
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It comes from the middle ages Arabic 'hashishiyyin' which was probably known to Crusaders, written of by Marco Polo, etc. hundreds of years before Shakespeare's time.
I don't see any mention of Shakespeare having anything to do with it's etymology.
http://www.alamut.com/subj/ideologie...etymolAss.html
If you check the OED, Shakespeare probably has one of the earlier written versions of 'Assasination' but just because we have no written of record of a word before some time, it doesn't mean it didn't exist or wasn't coined in parlance.
There are a lot of cool words in english that come from Arabic...like Alcohol (al-kuhul)