text: what are some words that william shakespeare used that have different meaning now? words that look the same but now have different meanings the most obvious is the line:  "wherefore art thou romeo?"  wherefore does not mean "where" as if she's asking where he is.  she's asking why he had to be romeo, in other words, from a family that her family is feuding.  she's asking why he couldn't have been someone else.  a modern-day lament might be, "oh, why did i have to fall in love with him?  why couldn't it have been someone else -- anyone else!?"