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Word Nerd: "bodkin"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 74-83

An explanation of the word "bodkin" in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

myShakespeare | Hamlet 3.1 Word Nerd: Bodkin

Hamlet

The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make    
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,     
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?    
Video Transcript: 

SARAH: Shakespeare is using the word bodkin here to mean a dagger, a sharp pointed weapon. It's bare because it has been taken out of its sheath, or holster, and is ready to be used.

RALPH: In Shakespeare's time bodkin could also be used to refer to a sharp needle-like instrument for punching holes in material, like leather or cloth and that's how we continue to use this term today.

SARAH: However, the term can also be used figuratively to refer to someone who's sitting tightly between two other people — to ride or to sit bodkin. It's a similar image: a person, like a needle, being pushed through something — squeezed between two other people when there's not quite room.