It'll go over well in Nantucket...

August 18, 2004 12:42 AM

The OEDILF is an audacious project which is attempting to write a limerick for every word in the English language. 642 limericks have been completed so far. Here's an overview of the project. Is it possible? Here's what editor-in-chief Chris J. Stolin says:

Skeptics say it's inconceivable.
A new OED? Unbelievable!
But I feel secure
That if we only endure,
It's a goal that is wholly achievable!

(via languagehat.)
posted by Vidiot (16 comments total)

-I think this is a re-post, June 18, (supra) but it is fun!
posted by Duck_Lips at 12:57 AM on August 18, 2004

Shoot, you're right. Sorry. (I searched for "limerick" on the Google search; don't know why it didn't return that one.)
posted by Vidiot at 1:11 AM on August 18, 2004

Never mind, I missed it last time, and this is my kinda challenge!

Take, for example, the definition of "acanthopterygii"... a superorder or other category of teleost fishes containing originally all those having the anterior rays of the dorsal and anal fins stiff and spiny (as the basses, perches, and mackerels) ... If you can condense this into just five lines with an AABBA rhyming pattern, please contact us! We're having one hell of a time with this one.

The acanthopterygii fishes
Are good in all kinds of fish dishes
They're ever so briny
Their fins are quite spiny
And overall they taste delicious
posted by rory at 2:06 AM on August 18, 2004

Was going to say "they have to be A/A/B/B/A, right?"... In which case this isn't valid (A/A/B/BB/A).
posted by ed\26h at 2:29 AM on August 18, 2004

The extra B's just a bonus, it doesn't invalidate it.

Also, this is FANTASTIC!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:14 AM on August 18, 2004

The project will founder on rhymes for "orange"
posted by jfuller at 5:06 AM on August 18, 2004

Dale Winton is clearly quite orange,
The result of a new tanning lozenge:
"Heez skeen eez all ourz,
But heez startled eyebrahs
Are ze rezult of an un-oiled door hinge."
posted by Blue Stone at 5:20 AM on August 18, 2004

posted by Blue Stone at 5:30 AM on August 18, 2004

PG: Uh, OK man.
posted by ed\26h at 7:42 AM on August 18, 2004

The project will founder on rhymes for "orange"

My scurvy friend
Came round the bend
Another orange
He did sponge
No more for expensive vitamin C tablets from the local pharmacy did he send.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 7:55 AM on August 18, 2004

Given that the limerick offered by the editor as a vote of confidence in the project doesn't scan, I am a bit dubious.

JFuller, no need to rhyme "orange"--no rule that the word in question has to be at the end of the line.

Is "orange" a word with no rhyme?
I've been hearing that said for some time
By pedant grammarians
And Metafilterians--
I'll take twelve of 'em. Here is my dime.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:26 AM on August 18, 2004

This project is geeky and fun,
but some things are best left undone.
These defining rhymes
are a huge waste of time.
So why do I want to write one?
posted by mosch at 11:57 AM on August 18, 2004 [1 favorite]

This thread will devolve
into endless limericks
or maybe haiku.
posted by mmoncur at 3:03 PM on August 18, 2004

You know what would impress me? Sestinas. Lots and lots of sestinas.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 3:10 PM on August 18, 2004

If the devil ran writing workshops in Hell, he would assign sestinas every day.
posted by DaShiv at 2:24 AM on August 19, 2004

Sidhedevil, very clever, but yours also doesn't scan. I only point it out because you made the comment I was gonna make about the one in the FPP.
posted by soyjoy at 12:56 PM on August 19, 2004