Here's a useful article from The Guardian showing how society's attitudes and changing practices put pressure on language to change.
Synchronic language change is change happening at a particular point in time (the term still exists but is being used in fewer and fewer circumstances so the change is happening right now) but it doesn't have to be now - you could look at when the word "spastic" was becoming unacceptable in the 80s, for instance and explore why.
Obsolete just means not used because it is no longer needed/relevant. 'Maiden' will do doubt remain in collocations such as 'maiden voyage' (at least for a while until its links to women's sexulatity become distasteful to a majority) but 'maiden name' is definitely becoming obsolete as the convention of a woman changing her name when she (invevitably!) marries is becoming less the norm.
Comment with some other examples of words that have recently dropped or are currently dropping out of use and suggest why. Or some historical examples - these are great to link to in the exam.
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