THE FIRST WORD

Hamlet

PRONUNCIATION:

(HAM-lit) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. An apprehensive, indecisive person.
2. A small village.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: After Hamlet, the prince of Denmark in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The opening of Hamlet's soliloquy "To be, or not to be" is among the best-known lines in literature. Earliest documented use: 1903.
For 2: From Old French hamelet, diminutive of hamel (village), which itself is a diminutive of ham (village). Ultimately from the Indo-European root tkei- (to settle or dwell), which also gave us home, haunt, hangar, and site. Earliest documented use: 1330.

USAGE:

"With some he is a Hamlet, a divided man who is always questioning himself."
John S. Dunne; Time And Myth; University of Notre Dame Press; 2012.