Google’s Ngram Viewer is a fun way to waste time online. You can search Google’s book database and discover how common a word’s usage has been over time.
If, for example, you searched for the word ‘depression’, you will see two peaks, one in 1934 and another in 2011. ‘Shell shock’ peaks in 1919. Type in the word ‘trauma’, and you will see its usage rise on a continual uphill graph from almost nothing in 1900; similar happens to the word ‘triggering’. The term PTSD rose from nothing in the 1970s to a sharp peak today.
There are endless words and phrases you can play with to see if they are on the increase in our literature. Pick a word about emotions; they are nearly all on the rise. This tool is not comprehensive. It doesn’t monitor everyday speech, for example. It doesn’t provide context, either. However, it does give a flavour of what is being written about and, therefore, what people are interested in.
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