Dear wwh,

My latest edition of the American Heritage shows lyric as the words of a song, and in parentheses there's a statement about lyrics used as the same. There's no usage note, unfortunately, so it appears that the board thought it no big deal. Don't have the dictionary with me here, but I could look it up.

To wow: On the usage in the phrase, "It has a beautiful lyric.." (or something you wrote like that): That seems to be the type of use referred to in the AHD. I've never knowingly heard that usage, but my ears are open now to see whether I ever hear it.

This could simply be a case of language-in-progress, ever-changing, adaptive, misused, and, finally, transformed into something it wasn't before.

Best regards,
WordAwake