The (possibly?) gay couple that Hamlet is friends with in the play of the same name.

They are duped by Claudius into escorting Hamlet to England to be killed, but Hamlet escapes. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then unwittingly meet the English King, and and hand him a letter instructing him to kill them both. They die. Nobody cares.

In the play, they always appear together, and seem to be entirely co-dependent. They have no real individual traits.

Despite the fact that they are fairly minor characters, they have a sort of cult status. Tom Stoppard wrote a famous play called "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", which tells the story of Hamlet from their perspective.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet...

GUILDENSTERN
Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambition is merely the shadow of a dream.

HAMLET
A dream itself is like a shadow.

ROSENCRANTZ
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.

rosencrantz and guildenstern by Drama_King March 10, 2008

rosencrantz and guildenstern

–interjection

1. warning given to not kill the messenger

Don't get all rosencrantz and guildenstern on me, but I saw your sister in a gangbang video involving midgets and animals.

rosencrantz and guildenstern by qcmonkey August 9, 2009

Gildenstern

To stumble back and then forward in one quick movement.

Guy 1: Did you go walking yesterday?

Guy 2: Yeah I was walking and this dude across the street pulled the hardest Gildenstern I've ever seen.

Gildenstern by Mustangs113 April 29, 2011

Guildenstern

The better of the two in the play Hamlet.

Guildenstern is fantastic, ie. Better than Rosencrantz

Guildenstern by Hildy November 18, 2003

Galantir

A group of people, typically women, searching through someone’s digital footprint in order to find more information about that person.

Susie wasn’t sure if her new Hinge match was a creep, so she assembled Galantir and they found out he used to post slurs on gaming forums.

Galantir by Ge-sus September 22, 2026

Word of the Day on September 23, 2026

murderhobo

In a tabletop game, a murderhobo is a player who murders NPCs indiscriminately. This is normally derogatory, referring to a player who totally ignores quests, dialog, backstory, trade, world building etc.

The term is most common with Dungeons and Dragons, but it can be applied to most RPGs where the player is allowed to kill most quest-giving NPCs and NPC traders. E.g. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Divinity original sin.

DM: The sad little orphan girl tugs at Steve's trenchcoat to get his attention, and ask for help saving her pet dog from...
Steve: I'd like to roll a strength check against strangling the orphan.
Dave: I call dibs on the dog.
DM: You murderhobos disgust me.

murderhobo by Loup&S September 9, 2021

Word of the Day on September 22, 2026

Whale

In sales terms, a whale is a prospect that is significantly larger than an organization’s average customer.

Whales are large and extremely difficult to close. Due to their immense size, they are highly sought-after.

A whale is typically identified at first by a whale hunter on the sales team, but often requires cross-discipline participation in order to close; this includes assistance from operations, engineering, creative, client success, and business development teams.

"Shit...the sales director chewed me out on the sales call this morning. He's totally pissed that I have nothing in my pipeline. I've been focused on this one whale for so long that I haven't had time to prospect for normal-sized deals."

Whale by FQ_GFY February 3, 2020

Word of the Day on September 21, 2026

Concrete cowboy

A guy who thinks he's a country kinda guy, but in reality lives a comfortable city / suburban life.

Eugene: Look at that dude in the cowboy hat!
Todd: He's just a concrete cowboy.

Concrete cowboy by EugeneJohnson42000 March 16, 2024

Word of the Day on September 20, 2026