Want to see how the usage of millions of words has increased or decreased over the last 500 years? Well, ok, maybe you didn't realize that you did, but you will. Google Books Ngram Viewer will see to it.
Link to the viewer:
Here's how it works: Put in a word like "teenager" and discover that the term was almost unused until the 1950s.
...can track when people started talking about "arugula," and when they stopped talking about "pork & beans."
What can I say, I waste a bunch of time on interesting but oddball stuff. I should be doing laundry. (Ngram tells me that use of the word "laundry" was almost nonexistant before 1800, but as of 2000 it is a most popular word.)
"…you just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake."
I spent far to long playing with this when it went live. First chased neologisms and spoonerisms but spent most of the time on Anglo-Saxon/Norman pairs like tit/breast. Teenager is an ace choice, must try it! and threat, to see if has a 50-60s bump as part of red threat. The possibilities are endless.
grooowrrrr! [menace menace] rrrrowwwr!
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