Research By Language Learning App Babbel For America’s 250th Year Reveals How The Nation’s Voice Has Evolved Since Its Founding

If someone today complained about “brabbling snollygosters”, you'd be forgiven for having no idea what they meant. But for early Americans, the phrase -  describing unscrupulous politicians arguing over trivial matters - would have been perfectly understandable. Despite the phrase being as relevant today as it was to early Americans, it is one of hundreds of distinctly American words and spellings that have become lost to time over the past 250 years. Until now. To mark the United States’ 250th year, new research reveals how drastically American English has evolved since the first days of the Republic, from attempts to push back against British ‘spelling tyranny’ to the influence of the many languages that have helped shape American English into the distinct national voice it is today. In line with America’s semiquincentennial, the research tells the story of how America found its voice and what defines it today.

To conduct the research, the experts at language learning app, Babbel (www.babbel.com), analyzed editions of one of America’s most influential reference works - the Merriam-Webster dictionary - spanning nearly two centuries. First published by lexicographer Noah Webster in 1828, it was the first dictionary to establish a distinctly American standard for the English language. The edition we use now has 10x the number of words the original had. The analysis reveals a language transformed over time: the words have disappeared, spellings have evolved, meanings have shifted, and influences from other languages have helped shape the unique character of American English as it is spoken today.  

Babbel’s linguistic findings are split into three areas: ‘America’s Lost Words’, ‘The Linguistic Melting Pot’ and  ‘The US Spellings That Never Caught On’ 

America’s Linguistic Melting Pot

The research paints a fascinating picture of how the different cultures that call the United States home have influenced its language over time. Whereas Noah Webster’s original dictionary drew mostly from European, Greek and Latin sources, modern editions of the dictionary draw from a far wider variety of languages - Japanese, Hindi, Korean, Arabic - that reflect a modern, global America. Another curious finding is a change in where words are sourced. Once primarily from places of authority - the bible and classic works by Shakespeare, Milton et al. - the modern dictionary takes a much more democratic approach, drawing from a broad range of sources including pop culture and internet slang.

America’s Lost Words

Early American English in some ways would have been incomprehensible to a modern ear. Babbel’s research has uncovered hundreds of words included in the first American dictionary that are no longer in use: Snollygoster (meaning an unscrupulous politician), Abliguration (to spend lavishly on food) and Brabble (arguing loudly about something meaningless). These words may seem archaic but their meanings are as relevant today as they were back then. The analysis by Babbel’s experts also revealed a wide range of words still in the dictionary, but whose meanings have changed completely; like ‘awful’, ‘gaslight’ and ‘quick.’

The US Spellings That Never Caught On

Imagine a world where we “beleev” in “steddy” progress, eat “soop” with a “spunge” cake, and where “wimmin” stick out their “tung” when concentrating. This alternate spelling reality could have been America’s linguistic landscape if Noah Webster had it his way. To support Babbel’s research into the first American dictionary, it teamed up with language expert and former school principal, Geoff Barton to reveal the proposed spelling rules for the newly-created United States that never caught on. Webster waged a linguistic revolution against what he saw as British spelling tyranny, driven by a belief that the English language had been corrupted by the British aristocracy and needed freeing from the “clamour of pedantry.” Just as America had declared political independence, Webster believed its language should follow suit - creating a distinctly American way of writing that reflected the democratic spirit of the new nation.

By tracking how American English has changed and what has influenced it over time, we gain a clearer understanding of how attitudes, values, and ideas have changed over the past 250 years of America. The evolution of language tells the story of the people who settled  America, the communities that influenced it, and the generations that continue to redefine it today.

Esteban Touma, Linguistic and Cultural Expert at Babbel, comments: “Noah Webster’s first dictionary is one of the most important written documents in American history. It is a text that gives us a vivid window into not just how people spoke and conversed, but also who they were conversing with, how they thought and what was important to them. It seems obvious, but how these words were chosen wasn’t random, but instead they represent a snapshot of a country’s geopolitical, social, economic, linguistic and religious zeitgeist. Our research unpacks that snapshot and uses it as a starting point to analyse how much the United States has changed and, in many ways, how much it has stayed the same.’’

‘’During the country’s 250th year, Americans will no doubt be reflecting on their heritage and how far the country has come since the Founding Fathers created the Declaration of Independence. This study by Babbel brings that heritage to life, showing how for over 200 years American English has been integrating and assimilating other languages into its own. Like previous Babbel research into the Super Bowl and the Spelling Bee, this investigation shows how flexible and expansive the American linguistic tradition can be.”

Full analysis can be found below, and further examples of words falling out of use, and emerging, can be provided on request.

Brabbling Snollygosters Cause Cunctation - America’s Lost Language 

Language is constantly evolving, so it’s no wonder that some words have fallen by the wayside over time. What is less common is for words to become so obscure that they vanish from the dictionary altogether. This becomes especially surprising when you take into account that the dictionary of today has 10 times the number of words as Noah Webster's original 1828 dictionary.

Babbel’s research reveals the words that were in parlance in America nearer the time of its founding, which are now all but forgotten. Here are 15 of the most interesting words that still have relevance today, selected by Babbel’s language experts:

• Snollygoster - An unscrupulous politician

• Abliguration - Spending a lot of money on food

• Brabble - Arguing loudly about something insignificant 

• Eftsoons - Soon afterwards

• Disembosom - To reveal a secret

• Frustescant - Resembling a shrub; shrub-like

• Sternforemost - To move backwards

• Cunctation / Cunctator - A delay / one who delays

• Belswagger - A lewd or swaggering man

• Droil - To work sluggishly or slowly

• Galliardise - Excessive merriment or excitement

• Grassation - Wandering or roaming without purpose

• Desudation  - Excessive sweating

• Hederaceous - Resembling ivy

• Crocitation - A croaking sound, like one made by a frog or a crow

Furthermore, the analysis revealed the words that have remained in the dictionary but whose meanings have changed completely.

• Gaslight - used to mean ‘the light coming from a gaslamp’; now refers to a form of manipulation

• Awful - Previously meant something simply worthy of awe; now has a negative connotation

• Nice - a term that has gone from meaning precise or careful to meaning pleasant

• Quick - used to refer to being alive; now obviously means being fast or speedy

• Wench - used to be a neutral term for a young woman; now a derogatory term

• Fond - previously referred to something foolish or silly; now refers to affection

• Industry - a term primarily used to mean diligence or hard work; now it's used to refer to a sector of the economy    
                                      

Latin & Greek Losing Share, Japanese, Korean and Internet Slang Gaining It - America’s Linguistic Melting Pot 

Babbel's analysis also reveals how American English has continually evolved through contact with different cultures, communities and technologies. As waves of immigration, cultural exchange and innovation have shaped the United States, they have also left their mark on the language. America has always been a country of immigrants and that shows in the intentional and foundational decision by the Framers to not have a national language, to preserve diversity and free speech. 

Babbel’s analysis finds that diversity at work, with significant shifts in the etymological origins of words appearing in American dictionaries over time. While traditional sources such as Latin and Greek continue to exert a strong influence on English vocabulary, their share has gradually declined as new words have entered the language from an increasingly diverse range of sources.

The findings also highlight how linguistic influence does not always reflect the number of speakers using a language. Historical prestige, institutional influence and cultural exchange can play a major role in determining which words become established in English. For example, French continues to exert a disproportionately large influence on American vocabulary relative to its number of speakers. Overall, however, the picture is one of growing linguistic diversity, with traditional roots losing share and newer sources of vocabulary steadily gaining ground:

Going Down:

• Latin - In 1828, 35% of words in the dictionary had Latin roots, by 2025, that percentage had slipped by 6%. 

• Greek - the same is true of Greek root words, 14% in 1828, and just 6% in 2025. 

• Hebrew/Aramaic - Previously 3%, in 2025 words from this root make up less than 1% of the dictionary words

• Arabic - 1.5% of total words  in 1828, now less than 1%

Going Up:

• French - Made up 22% of the 1828 dictionary, and has risen by 7% to 29% in 2025. It represents the continued assimilation of French words into English - from genre, to entrepreneur, to silhouette and sommelier - something that’s been going on for a thousand years, continuing with the French playing a crucial role in America’s independence.

• Japanese - Japan is a country with a massive global cultural influence because of art-forms like anime and video games, resulting in it being 2% of the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary with words like tsunami, anime, manga, karaoke, ikebana, futon, otaku, umami, origami, koi, ninja etc.

• Korean -The Hallyu, or ‘Korean Wave’, hasn’t spared the dictionary. Korean words were not in the dictionary in 1828, but by 2025 they make up 2% of all words with entries like K-drama, K-pop, bulgogi, bibimbap, manhwa, aegyo

• Hindi - words like yoga and karma have propelled Hindi into the Merriam-Webster dictionary with a 1% share (words like chai and naan), having not been in it at all in the 19th century.

• Spanish - Another classic language that has seen a growth in share, going from 1.5% to 3% of all dictionary words in 2025. This shows the limits of migration as a factor when it comes to lexical borrowing. Despite people of Hispanic descent making up a large part of the United States population, they have less institutional-based sway than a language like the French has had historically. Borrowed Spanish words tend to cluster narrowly around aspects like food and culture.

The research also turned up an interesting quirk, that 3% of the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary has data from outside of any one nationality: the internet. Words like rizz, bussin, no cap, slay, sus, yeet, lewk, nepo baby, touch grass and situationship are all strikingly recent additions that have seen incredible growth in a short period of time. Whereas Webster appealed to authority, from the Bible to Shakespeare, the modern dictionary takes a much more democratic approach. Expect the share of words sourced from the internet to only increase as time goes on.

Soop, Tung and Wimmin - The US Spellings That Never Caught On

As well as compiling the first American dictionary, Noah was also a leading proponent of spelling reform; of simplifying and democratizing complicated English spellings to bring them more in line with how they’re spelt. Webster waged a linguistic revolution against what he saw as British spelling tyranny, driven by a belief that the English language had been corrupted by the British aristocracy and needed freeing from the “clamour of pedantry.” Just as America had declared political independence, Webster believed its language should follow suit - creating a distinctly American way of writing that reflected the democratic spirit of the new nation.

Babbel has worked with language expert and former school principal, Geoff Barton to reveal 26 of Webster’s spelling reforms which never took hold in American English:

• Ake - ache

• Beleev - believe

• Bilt - built

• Cloke - cloak

• Dawter - daughter

• Determin - determine

• Gillotin - guillotine

• Giv - give

• Greef - grief

• Grotesk - grotesque

• Hainous - heinous

• Iland - island

• Korus - chorus

• Masheen - machine

• Neer - near

• Nightmar - nightmare

• Porpess - porpoise

• Sley - sleigh

• Soop - soup

• Spunge - sponge

• Steddy - steady

• Stile - style

• Thum - thumb

• Turnep - turnip

• Tung - tongue

• Wimmin - women