Track Words Over Time

[Mark Twain]

Google Books Ngram Viewer tracks the frequency of words used in books over the centuries. It's pretty cool to type in a word and see how fashionable it was one century before falling out of favor in the next.

 

[StatHaldol]

Interesting! Thanks for posting! I graphed the word "cigar" from 1600 to 2008. It peaked around 1920; however, there was a jump around 1650. I wonder why the jump in 1650?

 

[Mark Twain]

Interesting! Thanks for posting! I graphed the word "cigar" from 1600 to 2008. It peaked around 1920; however, there was a jump around 1650. I wonder why the jump in 1650?

Perhaps: 1650 "The use of tobacco is prohibited in Bavaria, Saxony, and in Zurich, but the prohibitions are ineffective. Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire decrees the death penalty for smoking tobacco: 'Where ever there Sultan went on his travels or on a military expedition his halting- places were always distinguished by a terrible rise in executions. Even on the battlefield he was fond of surprising men in the act of smoking, when he would punish them by beheading, hanging, quartering or crushing their hands and feed.... Nevertheless, in spite of all the horrors and persecution... the passion for smoking still persisted.'" [Edward M. Brecher et al., *Licit and Illicit Drugs*, p.212]

 

[Rodrigo de Jerez]

Apparently "vituperative" isn't often used. That's a damn shame. I like that word.