A History of Short Words

From the New York Times Crossword Puzzle

CALI

Sun, 13 Aug '23
Third-largest city of Colombia
Fri, 28 Apr '23
Sactown's locale
Sat, 18 Mar '23
"Going Back to ___" (LL Cool J platinum single)
Fri, 4 Mar '22
"Going Back to ___" (hip-hop classic)
Tue, 12 Oct '21
San Diego's state, informally
Fri, 26 Feb '21
It has its faults, informally
Tue, 29 Dec '20
The Golden State, familiarly