In the last 20 years, that kind of nuts-and-bolts language disappears, Mr. Pestre said. Verbs are turned into nouns – something that linguists have argued converts specific actions taken by named actors into “abstract objects.” (People and countries no longer “cooperate,” for example; there is just “cooperation.”)

At the same time, the use of adverbs that refer to a particular time frame (such as “now,” “recently” or “later”) declined by more than 50 percent. Past tense verbs grew rarer, while jargon and acronyms proliferated.

The pamphlet, which was published by the Stanford Literary Lab and appeared in the New Left Review, will be translated into Italian and German later this year. In it, the authors offer a side-by-side comparison.

“Here is how the bank’s report described the world in 1958:

The Congo’s present transport system is geared mainly to the export trade, and is based on river navigation and on railroads which lead from river ports into regions producing minerals and agricultural commodities. Most of the roads radiate short distances from cities, providing farm-to-market communications. In recent years road traffic has increased rapidly with the growth of the internal market and the improvement of farming methods.

And here is the report from a half-century later, in 2008:

Countries in the region are emerging as key players on issues of global concern, and the Bank’s role has been to support their efforts by partnering through innovative platforms for an enlightened dialogue and action on the ground, as well as by supporting South–South cooperation.”

The 2012 report does not refer to preventing hunger but rather to “food security.”

Perhaps most intriguing, though, is the series of graphs mapping the specific changes in word usage.

As one might expect, some reflect the World Bank’s changing priorities and concerns as well as historical events. For instance, in the late 1960s, when Robert McNamara becomes president and made “the war on poverty” a central mission, references to “families,” “farmers,” “education” and later, “women,” become more noticeable. In the 1980s, when many countries in the developing world are at risk of defaulting on loans, the language of debt becomes omnipresent, and there are frequent references to “expanding trade,” “expanding the private sector” and “raising competitiveness.”

The word “governance” makes its first appearance in 1990, signaling a new preoccupation with ethics, responsibility and rectitude. The language of finance replaces the language of agriculture and industry. In the previous decade, the word “portfolio” is used 10 times as frequently as it was throughout the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.