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Google nGram Viewer

Google has unveiled a new tool for analyzing the popularity of words over time. Using 5.2 million books (about 500 billion words, or 4% of all books ever published), the Ngram Viewer allows you to plug in up to five words or phrases, and see their frequency of use on a year-by-year basis.

This New York Times article explains the database and its possible uses for research.

For a more scientific approach, try this study.