What is an inkhorn?
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In his eulogy to Shakespeare published in the 1623 First Folio, fellow playwright Ben Jonson praises Shakespeare’s literary accomplishments despite his having “small Latine, and lesse Greeke.” While Shakespeare put to use what he did know of Latin and Greek in many of his plays and sonnets, he is better known today for his innovative use of the English language.
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Shakespeare turned nouns into verbs (grace, season), created compounds (faire-play, pell-mell), and added prefixes and suffixes (courtship, dauntless, disgraceful). His works were the first to record such words as ‘laughable,’ ‘eventful,’ ‘accommodation’ and ‘lack-lustre’.
But Shakespeare was far from alone in this lexical creativity. In fact, he was part of an early modern trend that saw between 10,000 and 25,000 new words enter the English language in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
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These words were directly borrowed from foreign languages—especially Latin and Greek legal, technical, and medical terms—or were newly coined (invented) by writers. Long, Latinate words used, or coined, by scholarly writers soon became known as “inkhorn terms” or “inkhornisms.”
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While it is an increasing desire to simplify and reduce concepts and language to its simplest forms, Inkhorn Projects recognises the complexities of contemporary life and acknowledges that language, like the way we live our lives and engage with our and other communities, cultures and creativity is a fluid and dynamic beast. While it is not the intent to bring archaic and obtuse language and concepts to the fore, we recognise the opportunity to bring diverse, complex and existing knowledge to build something new and valuable.
Inkhorn Projects is a boutique cultural policy and strategy consultancy based in the foothills of kunanyi in Hobart, lutruwita (Tasmania). We work with government agencies, arts organisations, and cultural institutions to develop strategy, build evidence, and solve complex problems across the cultural and creative sectors.
Our work spans cultural infrastructure and venue strategy, organisational design, economic analysis, grants program design, and policy development. We bring analytical rigour to every engagement — alongside genuine curiosity, deep sector knowledge, and a long-term view of sustainability over sentiment.
We operate primarily across Tasmania but increasingly on a national basis, with recent engagements in South Australia alongside ongoing work with state and local government across the island.
About Inkhorn projects
Principal Consultatnt
Tony Bonney is a senior cultural sector consultant and executive with more than 35 years of leadership experience across arts, events, tourism, and education in both government and not-for-profit contexts. Through Inkhorn Projects, he provides strategic advisory, research, program design, and governance services to state and local government agencies, arts organisations, and event bodies across Tasmania and nationally.
His consulting practice spans economic and policy analysis, cultural strategy, grants program design, business case development, and feasibility assessment.
Alongside consulting, Tony has held senior executive and leadership roles across a range of significant cultural organisations — including as CEO of Festival of Voices, General Manager of Perth Theatre Company and Fremantle Arts Centre, and Manager of Strategic Programs and Experience at the University of Tasmania — bringing direct operational and governance experience to every engagement.
contact
Inkhorn Projects - Tasmania
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