Interviewer: Good evening, Professor. It’s an honour to have you on the show again. After our last discussion we had so many questions from our listeners that we had no other choice but to continue the tale of why we should give classic literature a chance.

Professor: I’m happy to hear that people have strong opinions about it. It means that literary genres such as dramas or epic poetry are still up‑to‑date and serving their purpose, which is to stir people’s minds and hearts.

I: Today I’d like to ask you to give us some more reasons to reach for books from Western and world canon.

P: There are plenty, but today let me focus on a very interesting point. How many of you realise that you use many words and expressions coming from literature?

I: Do you mean all words created by Shakespeare?

P: Very good! It’s true that our master from Stradford‑upon‑Avon was a very prolific author of neologisms which have been with us ever since. Linguists who have conducted detailed studies into the topic estimate that we owe him about 1,700 words, which were first recorded in his works. By new words we mean totally new monikers for things and actions, but also combinations of already existing words, or using them as nouns while before they were only used as verbs. To give just a few examples, alligator first appeared in “Romeo and Juliet,” Act 5 Scene 1, manager in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Act 1 Scene 2, or skim milk in “Henry IV Part 1,” Act 2 Scene 3. Such expressions as fair play, foul play, and the world is your oyster are also his creations.

I: That’s really surprising! I thought these are more modern linguistic coinages. Can you tell us about other authors who contributed to our daily lexicons?

P: Have you ever heard anyone say that they are in a Catch‑22 type of situation? It’s actually the title of Joseph Heller’s novel published in 1961. It tells the story of Yossarian, an American bombardier who during the II World War is forced to fly over and drop bombs as part of the military operation in Europe. Catch‑22 describes his predicament, as the rule he’s trying to use to get discharged from the army actually disqualifies him from being discharged. To make things clearer, the bureaucratic rule states that if someone willingly flies lethally dangerous combat missions, he can be considered insane and removed from duty. However, if someone files for removal from duty on the basis of insanity, the application will be rejected as it proves that he is completely sane. Nowadays we use the phrase Catch‑22 to describe situations with no way out as the application of the rule leads to the impossibility of using it.

I: Sounds like a lot of nowaday’s red tape.

P: Indeed. Another interesting example comes from “The Flying Circus of Monty Python,” which is by many considered to be a classic manifestation of British humour. It’s about the word spam. When you hear it, what’s your first association?

I: Obviously, unsolicited emails sent to me by all sorts of companies.

P: That’s right. Did you know, however, that it was used in a classic sketch in which a couple comes to a restaurant which offers a variety of dishes, all of them with smaller or larger portions of spam. Originally, spam was a type of canned meat of rather low quality. As the lady, played perfectly by Eric Idle, expresses her dissatisfaction with the menu because she does not like spam, she is offered to order, quote “spam, egg, sausage, and spam” because there is not much spam in it. Since then spam has stood for something plentiful and essentially unwanted.

I: Can you give us any more examples from literature?

P: You can go down the rabbit hole, which is the title of the first chapter of Lewis Carol’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Nowadays, we use it to describe a surreal situation which we find ourselves in and it might be hard to escape. If you are really bad at something, let’s say cooking, you could say “I can’t cook to save my life!” It comes from “The Kellys, the O’Kellys” by Anthony Trollope.

I: Professor, what about names of characters which we now use to refer to people having certain characteristic features?

P: That’s another great example. We have a Pollyanna, a person who remains happy and optimistic to the point of irritation no matter what, and a Peter Pan, an adventurous and daring person who is not really keen on growing up and adulting. Both names come from books, the first one from a novel by Eleanor Porter, published in 1913, and the latter was brought to life by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie.

I: Thank you for all the super interesting fun facts. I am sure it will encourage our listeners to explore the classics for their references to our lives!