We commonly celebrate the anniversaries of events. We often celebrate personal events every year and more general events less often, typically in multiples of 10 or a hundred. However, we do not celebrate the anniversaries of the dates on which words entered our language. In many cases we know very precisely when a word entered the written language, or at least within a few years, and studying those birthdates can give insights into the ways in which a subject has developed over time. For example, of 792 medical words that entered the English language in the 1970s and 1980s, 32% were words relating to pharmacology, compared with 19% relating to biochemistry, 12% to microbiology, and only 6% to genetics. Although an analysis of this sort does not demonstrate the general importance of these activities, it does give insights into the extent and nature of the different types of activities that were taking place during that period.