Google Books - ngrams

[Jack_Ian]

I was going to put this in the "A complete waste of time" thread, but it might be interesting to keep interesting results together.
Basically you can chart relative use of phrases throughout the scanned books.
The results can be quite insightful.

For info, see here

Here are some simple ones I've tried:
charity, piracy, taxes
Jews & Hitler in German literature
the future, the past, the present
her boss, his boss
slavery, negro, African American, nigger
km, mile

These, of course, are all very simple, but there are also advanced options:
Sentence beginning with War Vs Peace

[Amb]

Contrary to my expectation: Whatever

Also I did Search Engines

[Courk*]

Charity, taxes, and piracy was even more fun taken back to 1750

[Courk*]

Beetlejuice vs. Betelgeuse

[Courk*]

"the best of times" vs "the worst of times"
I found the intersect point rather interesting, considering.

[Amb]

I dont know what to make of putting Creationism up against Global Warming and Climate change haha: Here

[The Potter]

The decline of British
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[groza528]

[Death Mage]

Happiness vs Depression
This may be the coolest thing in the history of ever.
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[Beetlejuice*]

[Thok]

[The Potter]

[Death Mage]

Yesterday, today, tomorrow
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[The Potter]

Guess this single word:


Hint: You will say, "$%#@ I should have thought of that!"
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Artwork | Fractals | Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

[Zag]

OK, The Potter, you've got my wife and me both intrigued, and both stumped. I need another hint.

Our thinking is that it is some word that meant something entirely different in the 1700's, but that was resurrected as part of the Rock and Roll lingo. But we've tried a ton of stuff and nothing fits.

[Death Mage]

I got it on the first try, though I'm curious as to why the big gap is there. Don't forget to extend the graph to 1700 instead of starting at the default of 1800.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[novice]

I got in on the first try too, I had to think about it first, though.

[Zag]

Oh, you two are just jerks. I already said I wanted a hint.

[novice]

[Jedo the Jedi]

I thought The Potter's hint was pretty good. What will you say when you realize you should have known it?
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[Lepton*]

Courk's Dickens Ngram is my favourite so far. The Potter's is interesting, apparently it reappeared in the OED in 1972, but was earlier referenced by Shakespeare.

Here's astronomy, astrology, cosmology.

[Chuck]

Why does ebook have a small bump in the 1790's?

[Jack_Ian]

[Jedo the Jedi]

Can you answer the same question for "cosmology" between 1587 and 1593?
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Interesting back and forth. One is better than the other?
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[The Potter]

OK, I came up with a second hint.

Hint: The poem across the tracks rebounding
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Artwork | Fractals | Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

[Quailman]

[The Potter]

Difference of Capitalization

hint: This one is sort of a chestnut...
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[Elethiomel]

A single, capitalized word:

[novice]

[Elethiomel]

Three animals:

[Zag]

So what was the word that I was too stupid to guess when others got so easily?

[Elethiomel]

It's a four-letter word.

[Jedo the Jedi]

You must not cuss/curse/use expletives very much, Zag.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Amb]

OMG is interesting.

I got the Zag-word. Without the hints further down

[Zag]

Well, with all the hints, I did get it, but I don't understand it. Why did it appear so much in the 1700's? I assume that there was some sort of official censorship in place that caused its complete disappearance for a century and a half, but I wouldn't expect the perfect zero that the graph shows.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Wikipedia suggests it was mostly used in the spoken word, but appeared in a dictionary until about 1800. I think it was considered too crude then, so it was not included in the dictionary again until you see its rise on the graph. *shrug*
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[novice]

[novice]

[novice]