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Hamlet

Pronunciation: /ˈhæm.lɪt/

The English word “Hamlet” has 5 meanings listed here.

proper noun

  1. A William Shakespeare play about the Danish royal family.
  2. The eponymous main character of William Shakespeare's play, whose father's ghost, murdered by Hamlet's uncle, exhorts him to seek revenge.
  3. An unincorporated community in Marin County, California.
  4. An unincorporated community in Mercer County, Illinois.
  5. An unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia, so-named for its small size.

Etymology

From Latin Amlethus, as written by 13th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, and borrowed into English by way of François de Belleforest's French Hamlet, originally rendered as Hamblet in English. Ultimately from Old Danish Amlethæ, corresponding to Old Norse Amlóði (“fool”), claimed to be suggestive of the way that Hamlet acts in the play, from ama (“to annoy”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.