The Oxford English Dictionary is a venerable tome, the gold standard of dictionaries. It is perfect for determining the precise meaning and origin of just about every baffling word.

Like bodkin (“A short pointed weapon”). Or cerulean (“pure deep blue”). Or osculation (“the action of kissing”).

Or … bracketology?

Yes, squeezed between bracketing and Brackett in the O.E.D., is a word defined as “the activity of predicting the participating teams in a tournament (typically the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament).”

What’s an all-American, modern concept like bracketology doing in a dictionary first assembled by Englishmen in the 19th century?