Words without thoughts never to heaven go

Written by Jeremy Chrysler
Published August 17, 2004

My friend jmac sent me a link to an interesting site called Wordcount, which plots around 87,000 English words as a decay curve, going from the most popular word "the", to the least popular, "conquistador". Words are ranked by how often they are used within the British National CorpusŪ, a 100 million word representative sample of written and spoken word pieces.
I was tinkering with Wordcount yesterday and found it interesting to compare words. Perhaps you will enjoy. I certainly did. Below, the word's ranking appears to its right. The higher the ranking, the more it is used.

These are the words of truth, and these are the truths of words, and this is what I have learned:

We Anglophones are a bit more concerned about the ends of our lives than we are the beginnings.

Birth: 1964
Death: 454

We fear more than we hope once we become lingual.

Heaven: 3733
Hell: 1927

Despite what a trip to the DMV might tell you, we are more interested than not.

Curious: 3997
Bored: 5162

There are more of us that have not than have.

Rich: 1482
Poor: 648

Sex sells, because no one wants to get rid of love, which is 3.35 times more popular.

Love: 384
Sex: 1286

Despite our differences in color, we are more or less the same:

Black: 356
White: 363

Girls are better at numbers than are boys:

Girl: 616
Boy:735

We trust hope more than we do statistics:

Marriage: 1314
Divorce: 4193

We have a favorite Stooge:

Larry: 10466
Curly: 12078
Moe: 57050

We think with our brains more than our stomachs.

Food: 503
Thought: 152

Two thirds of us are followers:

Shepard: 6474
Sheep: 3148

Grabbing is more important than walking:

Hands: 504
Feet: 698

If you've made it this far, you're the latter, if not, you're the former.

Stupid: 2939
Clever: 3793

English speakers like dogs more than cats:

Dog: 1293
Cat: 2532

Once again, the triumph of hope over reality:

Polite: 6369
Rude: 7147

And the answer to life's most important question:

Boxers: 22178
Briefs: 23689
Commando: 13066

I will never borrow another man's pants again.

love it, hate it, there's more of it at pacetown.

Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
Words without thoughts never to heaven go
Published: August 17, 2004
Type:
Section: Culture
Writer: Jeremy Chrysler
Jeremy Chrysler's BC Writer page
Jeremy Chrysler's personal site
Spread the Word
Like this article?
Email this
Submit to del.icio.us Save to del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
All RSS Feeds (240+)
Comments on this article
BC articles by Jeremy Chrysler
All Culture Articles
All BC articles
All BC Comments

Comments

#1 — August 17, 2004 @ 10:53AM — Eric Olsen

Jeremy, you have very quickly become an excellent and important contributor. Thanks!

#2 — August 17, 2004 @ 21:59PM — RJ [URL]

Kerry's looking good against Bush in 2004:

communist - 2370
capitalist - 3844

More evidence of the patriarchy:

pussy - 21548
cock - 10870

Score one for the white male oppressors:

diva - 40071
shark - 15031

Want comments emailed to you? No spam, promise! Address:

Add your comment, speak your mind

(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/18748)

Personal attacks are not allowed. Please read our comment policy.





Remember Name/URL?

Please preview your comment!

Fresh
Articles
Fresh
Comments