The above chart is based on data from Google Books NGrams. It reflects the number of times the word occurs in the books and periodicals that are in Google's collection, grouped by the decade in which the book was published. Be aware that this skews heavily toward out-of-copyright texts and scientific articles, so the chart may not exactly mirror how the word has been used in everyday English speech over the past few centuries. Mouse over a bar in the graph to see the stats for each decade, along with suggested alternatives.