Unsurprisingly, a lot’s changed since the 1500s, not least of all language. But now a physicist has crunched through 5.2 million books published over five centuries in order to analyze the way the English language has changed over time.

There is, of course, one constant: by far and away the most popular word throughout history is the humble definite article “the”. No surprise there, as it’s an indispensable classic.

Dig around into short phrases, however, and things get more interesting. Back in 1520, the most popular three-word phrase was “of the Pope”. Not so these days, because it’s been superseded by the more useful, but rather more boring, string “one of the”.

Read More via The Evolution of English Language Over the Last 500 Years.