limerick English · revision 2176

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈlɪm(ə)ɹɪk/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Named after Limerick, a county and city in Ireland,^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(RHWU) but the connection is obscure.^(Etymonline)^(AHD) The OED and Random House report a custom at parties of extemporizing nonsense verses, each followed by the refrain “Will you come up to Limerick?”,^(OED 1989)^(RHWU)^(AHD) but Barnhart and Etymonline say there is no early evidence for it.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) Another theory links it to a group of 18th-century poets in Limerick.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A humorous five-line nonsense verse (1896).^(OED 1989)^(MW Collegiate)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) The OED's first record is in a letter of Aubrey Beardsley.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The form is older than its name: the first limericks appeared in books of 1820 and 1821,^(AHD) and Edward Lear popularized it in a collection of 1846.^(AHD)^(Etymonline) Modern limericks usually depend on a pun or turn of wit and are often bawdy.^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1820–21 – the first limericks in print.^(AHD)

+ * 1846 – popularized by Edward Lear.^(AHD)

+ * 1896 – the name ''limerick''.^(OED 1989)^(MW Collegiate)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A light, humorous, nonsensical or bawdy verse of five chiefly anapaestic lines, rhyming ''aabba''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}