Image copyright Getty Images Image caption 'Housewife' got the most mentions in the 1950s

Who was the last MP to say "negroes" in the Commons? Which leader's favourite word was "fight"? How many times have MPs used swear words?

A new website created by the University of Glasgow, documenting the 7.6 million Parliamentary speeches made from 1803 to 2005, has all the answers.

A trawl through the 1.6 billion words spoken in Parliament over the past 200 years offers an alternative history of the nation's fads and obsessions and the changing cultural tastes of our elected representatives.

Dr Marc Alexander, director of historical thesaurus of English, who was in charge of the project said in the 1800s "the things that parliament loved were liberty and justice but in more recent years it's animals and democracy".

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Michael Heseltine opens the M4 motorway in 1971

The research found over time Members of Parliament have moved towards more personal speeches and using more slang.

There were fewer quotes in Latin and more pop culture references - twentieth century inventions such as James Bond which was mentioned 132 times, Mickey Mouse, mentioned 278 times and Dracula 66 times.

In the nineteenth century, by contrast, there were just under 200 references to the Roman philosopher Cicero.

The research found certain words were used more commonly in certain periods of time.

Dr Alexander said the word "housewife" peaked in the 1950s. The use of the word "colonist" spiked in the 1850s, "nationalise" was most used in the 1940s, "nuclear" during the 1960s-1980s and "motorway" was most popular in the 1970s.

Bad language

There have been relatively few swear words used. In 28 instances of swearing three were variations of the f-word, 17 were references to "arse" or "arse-lickers" and eight instances of the p-word used in this 1969 quote from Eric Lubbock MP: "I can not imagine how you have managed to stay awake: I have heard nothing but piss and wind all the time I have been in the Committee."

There were distinct differences between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, with the Commons being more combative in their use of language.

In the Lords, words such as "think", "believe" and "perhaps" were used more than in the Commons.

Most talked about religions

Christianity or Christian was mentioned 45,902 times

Judaism or Jewish was mentioned 15,165 times

Islam or Muslim was mentioned 5,291 times

Hinduism or Hindu was mentioned 2,033

Sikhism or Sikh was mentioned 1,192 times

Buddhism or Buddhist was mentioned 506 times

Leaders of political parties are often associated with particular words or speeches in their careers.

Unsurprisingly, Sir Winston Churchill's most commonly used verb was "fight".

Margaret Thatcher's top words were "resource", "negotiation", "strike", "wage" and "productivity".

The university says Tony Blair's most commonly used words were "troop", "euro", "summit" and "pensioner".

The MP recorded as being told to "shut up" the most in Parliament was Labour's Dennis Skinner, who once referred to Prime Minster David Cameron as "dodgy Dave".

Dr Alexander said he believed "lots of politicians will look themselves up" using the archive.

Cultural changes

The language used in Parliament shows a shift in cultural attitudes.

In the 1800s, when the British Empire was in full swing, foreigners were described using words such as "savage", "wild" and "pre-civilised". The word "negroes" was used 3,354 times in total.

It was last heard in the Commons in 1998, when then home secretary Jack Straw recited a poem by Winthrop Mackworth Praed, an MP and poet in the early 19th Century.

Image copyright PA Image caption Tony Blair: Troop, euro, summit and pensioner

The most recent time it was used to refer to a black person was by the late Tony Benn in 1988, during a debate on the 300th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution, when he said: "the rights of the Irish Catholics under William III were fewer than those of the American negroes at the time of slavery".

The word "sex" was mentioned 23,722 times, mostly to describe gender.

In the 1800s phrases such as "delicacy of her sex", "frailties of the sex", or "feebler sex" were used.

The word "war" has been consistently used in Parliament since the 1800s - the highest use was during 1940-1949 when it was used 170,661 times. The lowest was from 1800-1809 and it was used 3,663.

During the 1940s the word "atomic" made a significant appearance for the first time.

It was mentioned 2,709 times, mainly because of the first ever use of the atomic bomb over Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Talk of "nuclear" shortly followed with the focus shifting to nuclear weapons and energy.

From 1950-1959 it was mentioned over 9,000 times, considerably up from the previous decade when it was mentioned fewer than 150 times. During the 1990s "nuclear" mushroomed to 20,892 mentions - the highest decade so far.

Which prime minister gave the most speeches up to 2005?

Image copyright Getty Images

The list includes speeches made before, during and after their time in power, except for Tony Blair whose final total will be higher because he remained in Parliament until 2007.