This word originally had a broad sense of “mental conception”, with no hint of the modern pejorative meaning. For Shakespeare it is often “notion, idea”, as in “the first conceit of love” (Sonnet 108.13). It is “intelligence” when Falstaff says of Poins “There’s no more conceit in him than is in a mallet” (Henry IV Part 2, II.iv.236). And it is “opinion” when the Duke confides to Proteus “the good conceit I hold of thee” (Two Gentlemen of Verona, III.ii.17). When the Ghost tells Hamlet, “Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works” (Hamlet III.iv.115), it means “imagination”, taking on darker associations of “imagining” when Claudius describes Ophelia’s ramblings as “Conceit upon her father” (Hamlet, IV.v.45). But the word can also apply to objects. Osrick describes rapiers “of very liberal conceit” - very ingenious design (Hamlet V.ii.150), and Egeus accuses Lysander of stealing Hermia with “rings, gauds, conceits” - trinkets (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I.i.33).

David Crystal is author, with Ben Crystal, of Shakespeare’s Words, published by Penguin