Death rate of English words rises

We're in a mass extinction event just now. Languages are going extinct as well as organic creatures. However, what you may not have known is that English words are going extinct too - according to the following study:

Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death by Alexander M. Petersen, Joel Tenenbaum, Shlomo Havlin & H. Eugene Stanley (2012).

The study analyses Google's book corpus. It contains a number of pretty plots of word birth and death rates.

News coverage:

• Study reveals words' Darwinian struggle for survival
• The New Science of the Birth and Death of Words
• Modern era brings death to words