Feb. 1, 1884: First part of Oxford English Dictionary released

OED was born
At least the first installment
Called a fascicle

“Fascicle” — oh joy
600,000 words, they
Had to pick that one

It took 40 years
To finish that pig, which grew
To 12 … fascicles

A definition:
Fascicle — what you get when
You freeze your fas off

Second edition
Grew to 20 full volumes
Took 61 years

The third edition?
Complete through “Ryvita,” up
To its “S” in words

It’s also online
Good thing it’s just text or we’d
Be out of bandwidth

Happy birthday, book
With 600,000 words
Guess that says it all

Also see haiku from Aug. 22, when the latest OED update was released.

And from Oct. 6, haiku on British-isms, to mark U.K. Poetry Day.

And check out the latest newsletter for ABC Books in Springfield.