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A.Word.A.Day--fascicle

This week's theme: words about books.

fascicle (FAS-i-kuhl) noun

1. Part of a book published in installments. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary was published in fascicles.

2. A bundle. For example, a bundle of nerve or muscle fibers, or a bundle of leaves.

[From Latin fasciculus, diminutive of fascis (bundle).]

The word fascism is related. It refers to the Latin fascis (a bundle or a group) and also to the emblem adopted by Mussolini: a bundle of twigs that was carried as a sign of the power of a magistrate in ancient Rome.

See more usage examples of fascicle in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"Between 1952 and 1984, about two fascicles a year were published." Edward Walsh; A Lexicographic Trip Of Millions of Slips; The Washington Post; May 27, 1992.

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