We all use them. Phrases like “the game is up,” “a sorry sight,” or “wear your heart on your sleeve” roll off the tongue so naturally that we never stop to ask: Where did these actually come from?
In most cases, the answer is one man – William Shakespeare.
Even if you’ve never read a single sonnet or sat through a full performance of Hamlet, you’re quoting the Bard more often than you realise. Let’s look at some of the gems from a recent list of Shakespearean expressions – and see why they’ve stuck around for 400 years.
Knock, knock! Who’s there?
This one feels so modern (think comedy routines and dad jokes) that it’s surprising to find its origin in Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 3). The Porter’s drunken, rambling knock-knock scene is the first recorded use of this joke structure in English.
The game is up
When someone’s scheme has been exposed, we say “the game is up.” Shakespeare used it in Cymbeline – a tidy way of saying “your deception is over.”
Wear your heart on your sleeve
To show your emotions openly and vulnerably? That comes from Othello, where the treacherous Iago ironically says he’ll wear his heart on his sleeve for all to see (though of course, he never does).
What’s done is done
A masterclass in grim acceptance. Lady Macbeth utters this in Macbeth – though she later finds that some things, once done, cannot be so easily lived with.
Dead as a doornail
We still say this constantly. It appears in Henry VI, Part 2 – a wonderfully vivid, slightly absurd image that has outlasted most people’s knowledge of what a doornail actually is.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
The witches’ chant from Macbeth. It captures the play’s entire moral inversion – good becomes bad, bad becomes good. Today, we use “fair/foul” to describe anything from weather to sporting conduct.
A sorry sight
From Macbeth again (seeing a pattern?). When Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, he calls it a “sorry sight.” Now we use it for anything mildly disappointing – from a burnt dinner to a messy room.
Naked truth
This one feels almost proverbial. In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare gives us the idea of truth without any covering – bare, unvarnished, and completely exposed.
Off with his head!
Yes, this is pure Shakespeare (Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III). It’s since become the default phrase for any theatrical tyrant – from the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland to countless cartoon villains.
The be-all and the end-all
Another Macbeth special. Macbeth wonders whether assassinating Duncan would be “the be-all and the end-all” – the complete, final solution. Now we use it to mean the ultimate or most important part of something.
Send him packing
To dismiss someone unceremoniously. It appears in Henry IV, Part 1 – and we still use it for breaking up with a partner, firing an employee, or rejecting a salesperson at the door.
Wild-goose chase
In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio uses this to describe a chaotic, back-and-forth kind of argument. Today, it means a pointless or hopeless pursuit – a very different kind of chase, but the spirit of futility remains.
Why does this matter? Because Shakespeare didn’t just write plays. He shaped how English speakers think, argue, joke, and grieve. These phrases aren’t museum pieces – they’re alive in every conversation you have.
Next time you say “what’s done is done” or “a sorry sight,” give a quiet nod to the glover’s son from Stratford-upon-Avon. He’s been knocking at our door for four centuries – and we’re still answering.