A linguist uses a language model to analyze word frequency in ancient texts. She finds that the frequency of a particular archaic word halves every 50 years. If the word appeared 1,280 times per million words in 1850, in what year did it first drop below 5 occurrences per million?

Sat, 09 May 2026 12:45:26 +0000

**Why the Ghost of Archaic Language Lives On—And When It Faded** Recent spikes in interest around data-driven historical linguistics suggest more people are drawn to how language shapes culture and time. Recent research shows an archaic word once common in 19th-century texts now appears less than half as often every half-century. Starting with 1,280 occurrences per million words in 1850, this word’s frequency halves every 50 years. As linguistic models parse centuries of written records, this gradual decline reveals fascinating patterns about language evolution—and what it says about how language adapts across generations. Could a linguistic word once basic to correspondence now endure past five appearances per million? This question crosses academic study and public fascination alike, especially as digital tools make historical linguistics more accessible than ever. Let’s trace the question: when did that word first drop under the quiet threshold of five per million? ---