False Friends in Shakespeare

Are there false friends in Shakespeare and who are they? Is this an article about, say, Lago and Othello? Well, not really. However casual the phrase false friends may sound, it is in fact a technical term in the study of language. In linguistics, false friends are words that look similar, but mean (often wildly) different things. A word that is a false friend looks familiar to you, you believe you know it means, and then you find out you didn't know the first thing about it. Just as in life.

False friends exist across languages. For example, if you have ever studied German, you may have found out the hard way that a German Gift (= venom, poison) is not as nice and friendly as an English gift (= present). In Italian, eventualmente means "maybe", "possibly", "perhaps", but never "eventually". Therefore, eventualmente and eventually are false friends between English and Italian.

False friends also exist between different periods in the history of the same language. Semantic change happens all the time. It is unstoppable. Shakespeare's language, i.e. Early Modern English, is chock-full of false friends to Modern English.

Let's take a look.

Generous = of noble lineage
"... most generous sir..." (Love's Labour's Lost, 5.1.81)
The word generous here is used in the sense of "high born, of noble lineage" (< Latin genus = birth, descent; hence genesis). The modern meaning of generous (openhanded, munificent) may fool you into assuming that the person addressed is liberal in giving. Not so. At least we can't tell from this line. All we learn from generous here is that the person being addressed is of noble descent.

Disgraceful = devoid of grace, i.e. ungraceful
"Away with these disgraceful wailing robes!" (Henry VI, Part 1, 1.1.87)
The wailing robes (= garments of mourning) are simply unbecoming, unpleasing to the eye, ungraceful. They are not disgraceful in the modern sense of the word. In Shakespeare's use of disgraceful there are no negative connotations of disapproval, embarrassment, or loss of respect that modern speakers of English associate with disgrace.

Viewless = invisible
"To be imprison'd in the viewless winds..." (Measure for Measure, 3.1.135)
To the modern English speaker, rooms can be viewless... but winds? In this context, viewless does not mean "without a view", but "invisible". (Ultimately, both view and (in)visible are derived from the Latin verb videre, "to see".)

Investments = clothes
"... You, lord archbishop... Whose white investments figure innocence..." (Henry IV, Part 2, 4.1.49)
Contrary to appearances, this line is not about the archbishop's Roth IRA, but about his white robes. The word invest (both in the older meaning of clothing - cf. vest, vestry - and in its current financial meaning) comes from the Latin verb investire (= to cover, to clothe). If we think of financial investment vehicles as different kinds of clothes we dress up our money in, then we understand the etymological link between a bishop's robes and his 401(k).

Manager = wielder of weapons
"Adieu, valour! rust rapier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love..." (Love's Labour's Lost, 1.2.164-165)
No, Don Armado (the character speaking this line) is not the manager of a weaponry business. Shakespeare's use of the word manager stays close to its etymological source, which is the Latin word manus (= hand). Don Armado does not sell weapons, he (literally) handles them, he wields them. He is a soldier, not a businessman.

Excrement = outgrowth (e.g. hair, nails)
"...it will please his grace, by the world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio..." (Love's Labour's Lost, 5.1.91-94)
Before you go all "eewww!" and "aw s**t!" and hasten to send psychic hugs to every hapless actor that has ever been in a production of "Love's Labour's Lost", let me assure you that excrement is not used here in the sense of "feces". (The word mustachio that immediately follows, provides a little hint...) Elsewhere in Shakespeare we find the phrase "valour's excrement" meaning "a brave man's beard".

Now, this is a false friend, if there ever was one.

Sources:
Shakespeare Online: http://www.shakespeare-online.com
Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.m-w.com