I think I found another one, and it looks like it swapped twice:
<a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic</a><p>Edit:<p>Another: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology</a><p>A very early switch: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards</a><p>Another: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog</a><p>And another: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center</a><p>A weaker one: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fibre.fiber" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fibre.fiber</a>
While searching for my own I tried "computer"<p><a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer&format=count" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer&format=count</a><p>Virtually none before 1950 except a strange peak in 1938 of 66. My curiosity piqued I dug deeper to find out it was the name of a horse !
Corea and Korea<p><a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=korea.corea.korean.corean" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=korea.corea.korean.cor...</a><p>Some history: "Corea" was more common in the English speaking world for the territory we call Korea today. At some point during the Japanese colonial period, as Japan solidified its ownership of the territory, the preferred spelling in English speaking countries became "Korea". ("Corea" is still used in many other languages and neither the Koreans nor the Japanese use Korea or Corea when talking about the peninsula).<p>There's a conspiracy theory that one of the cultural suppression activities the Japanese colonial government took part in (along with forcible language conversion and various geomanctic engineering efforts like driving thousands of iron poles into the ground at traditional seats of Korean power and moving entrance gates to palaces to break the flow of Chi) was broadcasting out to the world that "Korea" was the preferred spelling since it put Korea after Japan in alphabetized lists of countries in English speaking territories.<p>More pragmatically, both spellings were used up until the 20th century. But Korea was relatively unknown in the West outside of mild curiosity. The actual popularization of one spelling over the other seems to be the result of writings on Korea by the U.S. missionary and later consul general at the time, Horace Newton Allen, who exclusively used "Korea" when writing about the country.<p>This spelling was picked up and at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, the exhibit listed both spellings as correct, but people were generally told that "Korea" was the preferred spelling. Allen was heavily involved in the planning of the exhibit.<p>On the graph here, you can see that Korea wasn't a topic at all in the NYTs reporting until directly after the exhibition, which seems to have been successful in bringing attention to the country. But the more familiar "Corea" was used until 1897, when it was pretty much dropped in favor or "Korea".<p>Interest stayed low until the Korean war after which the amount of reporting on the country steadily increased.
Funny, how years get born and then forgotten over time:<p><a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=2010.2000.1990.1980.1970.1960.1950.1940.1930.1920.1910.1900.1890.1880.1870.1860.1850" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=2010.2000.1990.1980.19...</a><p>There is a little anticipation in the preceding years, then a big explosion in the year itself and then slow decline in the following years.
Another difference in usage between British English and American English: In the US, you go to a movie theater to see a film. Or you go to the theater to see a play.<p>In the UK, you go to a cinema to see a film. Going to the theatre is understood to mean going to see a play/musical/performing arts.
This is exactly what I have been trying to achieve with my CutSpel Chrome extension - so far not too much interest, but I might try another submission in a little while.<p><a href="http://www.cutspel.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.cutspel.com</a>
The word "It" has never appeared in the NY Times. <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=it" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=it</a>
I could have really used Chronicle in high school english (1987) - I was constantly getting essays handed back with the accusation that I was making up words (said evidence being the lack of the words in my English instructor's somewhat dated dictionary).<p>"Horrific" was one that always got me in trouble - though, apparently, it is a somewhat new word.<p><a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=horrific" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=horrific</a>
I was just puzzling about this the other day. I live in the USA and I've always spelled the word as theatre. Only recently, I've noticed that spellcheck is balking at this.<p>It's somewhat comforting to know that my way of spelling the word isn't wrong and I don't really mind that my country wants to spell it differently.
These swaps are clearly "non-organic" (i.e. didn't emerge from gradual changes in colloquial language). Are they the result of a change in editing staff? Spelling correction software?
In high school chemistry (mid 1990's), I was told that "sulfur" had become standardised over "sulphur". Seems like this began happening in the mid 70's...
<a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=sulfur.sulphur" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=sulfur.sulphur</a>
Dropped to 0.02% circa 1878, stayed about there until a slow trend upwards started in 2012, now at 0.09% in 2014: <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=while.whilst&format=percent" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=while.whilst&format=pe...</a>
Istanbul, of course, used to be Constantinople, but a long time gone is about 1930:
<a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=istanbul.constantinople" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=istanbul.constantinopl...</a>
This was discovered a week ago on Hacker News: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8090272" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8090272</a>
I've always heard the distinction being that "theater" is general and applies more to movie theaters whereas "theatre" was more specifically stage plays.
on a different angle, "smartphone" first occurrence in 1998, which matches with wikipedia reporting it in 1997 from Ericsson
blob:<a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/d4661696-f25d-47be-8a83-8996420cb177" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/d4661696-f25d-47be-8a83-8996420...</a>
"He" is and has always been more common than "She". <a href="http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=she.he" rel="nofollow">http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=she.he</a>
As an aside, my web dev company runs about 10 web sites for theatre companies and all of them spell their names ending in 're' while the venues they play at spell their names ending in 'er'.<p>The first time we signed up one of these companies, I asked about the spelling and was given the same history as outlined in the article. With the second company that signed us, we mis-typed theatre and were taken to the woodshed for making the error.<p>So we are used to spelling it as theatre in the correct use of the word and are surprised the NY Times has not for many years.