words anchovies in pin-stripes dance a gavotte

Each year brings a fresh crop of new words. "Lottomania" was undoubtedly the word of 1995. First coined in June to describe two psychiatric cases of people who thought they had won the lottery, the word rapidly became an epidemic with delusions ranging from pounds 1,000 to pounds 2m. According to the latest Psychiatric Bulletin, "The National Lottery may be incorporated into a wider spectrum of psychopathology".

We cannot predict what 1996 has in store - millennimania? Mawhinneyism? - but thanks to the first-date filter mechanism on the CD-Rom version of the Oxford English Dictionary, we can see which words are celebrating centenaries in 1996. The first-date is not necessarily the year the word entered the language, but the year of its earliest citation in the dictionary. So what were the words first spotted in the texts of 1896?

It was when a gangster in Aertex headwear and Savile Row pin-stripe could first have danced a tango, played a ukulele or run a marathon. In all, 421 words in the dictionary were first spotted in 1896, though some, such as harumphrodite, stuffless and twitterly have yet to establish themselves in common usage.

Perhaps the most important words of 1896 were motor (as a verb), motorist and motor-cycle. Signs of incipient motorway madness may be detected in death-wish and kamikaze turning up in the same year.

Going back to 1796, we have 495 first citations, including cannibalism, clarinet, phosphorescent, nose-bag, thingummy and umbrella-like. It also brought the first dead heat. While 1896 had given us slapstick, we have had frivolity for 200 years. More seriously, 1796 gave us ideology and idealism.

Three hundred years ago, we first encountered a marsupial, studied botany, danced a gavotte, said abracadabra, and tasted peppermint. Altogether, 1696 brought us 195 new words. However, the binocle, though a very logical term for a pair of spectacles, never caught on, which must have been disappointing to the ophthalmist who coined the term.

No fewer than 753 words appeared for the first time in 1596, thanks largely to William Shakespeare. It was the year of the anchovy (which made its entry in Henry IV, Part 1) the spare-rib, and the first orchestra. Less pleasurably, 1596 also brought us foul-mouthed, lout, rape and shag (both as verbs), and villainist. The original punk was also spotted, though in Shakespeare's time the word meant a prostitute.

There were 99 new words recorded in writings of 1496, though thurification, wrike nail and zely appear not to have survived. Aggresteyne, however, is worth remembering, if you ever need a word to describe a disease of the tail feathers of hawks. Gnash, urgent and firewood are the most useful words of 1496, unless you like angling.

Going back earlier, we reach the period when English was still emerging from Anglo-Saxon, Latin and its other forebears. Nevertheless, 1396 gave us 13 words, including claret and the almost indispensable havegooday (an obsolete form of haggaday, a kind of door latch). From 1296 we have six words, including flat, tailor and vermilion, while 1196 brought only cervicide, the killing of a deer.

That's all for now, so, as Clint Eastwood might have said: havegooday, punk.