In the new paper, Alexander Petersen, Joel Tenenbaum and their co-authors looked at the ebb and flow of word usage across various fields.

WSJ: Culturomics Looks at the Birth and Death of Words

The paper also tracked word usage through time (each year, for instance, 1% of the world's English-speaking population switches from "sneaked" to "snuck").

WSJ: Culturomics Looks at the Birth and Death of Words

Already, he says, out of 1.5 million monthly visitors, 350, 000 arrive without following a link through another site, a sign that an audience is building through usage and word of mouth.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Language is a kind of informal plebiscite: when we adopt a new word or alter the usage of an old one, we're casting a voice vote for a particular point of view.

NPR: 'Talking Right': Why the Left Is Losing, Linguistically

Without technically altering the definition, shifts in usage can give a word a new connotation.

FORBES: American Political Economy Alters English Language

The editors of the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook announced that after careful consideration, they had changed the usage rules for the word "hopefully".

BBC: Are language cops losing war against 'wrongly' used words?

It is questionable, however, whether the word ulug (lout) has dropped out of current Arabic usage.

ECONOMIST: Post-war post bag