the statistical study of the vocabulary of a language, with special attention to the historical links with other languages
See also glottochronology
lexicostatistics in American English
(ˌlɛksɪˌkoʊstəˈtɪstɪks)
noun
a technique used in glottochronology to determine the time when the languages under study separated, based on the statisticalcomparison of sample word lists from the languages