Question

When Hamlet shows his mother a picture of King Hamlet and a picture of Claudius, he tells her to look at the "counterfeit presentment of two brothers." In Shakespeare's day, counterfeit meant a "portrait" or "picture." What does counterfeit mean today?

Answer 1

Today, counterfeit would be used to describe something as an exact copy of another item without the same value.

Answer 2

Answer:

Counterfeit today means a copy. A copy which looks like of the original but is not really in the original.

Explanation:

Shakespeare calls the portrait a counterfeit which symbolizes that something which is a copy or which is not the original one. It is the mere representation of the original object. Hence, it can be concluded that there has been a shift in the meaning of the word but the main objective of the word remains the same.