Bard...

[Victor Steinbok]

... happens to be the OED WOTD tonight. Interestingly, no mention of
Shakespeare.

Well, not entirely true--under 4.,

> 1881 (title) The Bard of Avon Birthday Text-book compiled from
> Shakespeare's Plays and Poems.

Too bad. The references, of course, go back much further than that
(Pope). RHD, Cambridge and Encarta list "the Bard". Other dictionaries
represented on-line do not.

     VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org