Here’s an Ngram Faceoff among beef, chicken, and pork in English from 1800 to 2008.

Beef is the clear champion for long while, with pork a strong second during the 19th century. But look what happens to chicken around the Watergate era. (Click the chart to see a larger version.)

8 Responses to “Ngram Faceoff: Beef, chicken, pork”

  1. Chaa Creek says:

    Chicken wins both pork and beef!

  2. John says:

    Pork doesn’t seem to do that well, I rarely eat pork, but regularly feast on bacon, sausages and ham.

    Beef could also be referred to as steak or burgers. The only alternative name for chicken is poultry, but that’s rarely used in a domestic setting.

    Another thing about chicken is that it’s also the name of the animal, whilst beef and pork are just collective terms for meat produce.

    I wonder how this ngram would balance out if you could take alternative names and alternate uses into account?

  3. Randy says:

    “god,devil” is interesting, too. Something in the 1870’s made god much more popular.

  4. I’ve stopped eating red meat because of the horrible environmental impact of the cattle industry world wide. I don’t eat pork either because are they are so smart. So I thank the chicken I eat for their gift of eggs and meat. Thanks for the info, Daniel.

  5. Chuck G says:

    “god, devil” is a case where capitalization makes a big difference. Use “God, devil” instead since the more common usage is to capitalize God.

  6. Marshall Sutherland says:

    I thought zombie, vampire, pirate, ninja was interesting, 🙂

  7. Jessica says:

    @marshall — Great one. Here’s the link:http://bit.ly/gsIHG4

  8. Sara says:

    This is probably due to the Mad Cow scare….