It’s fascinating how even quite common words can find themselves overshadowed by new arrivals or by words which begin to trespass on their territory.
A widely found example today is the increasing use of ‘multiple’ to mean ‘many’. Neither Chambers nor Collins gives ‘many’ amongst the – hmm – multiple meanings of ‘multiple’, though Chambers does give ‘manifold’, which in turn is defined as ‘many’. The usage of ‘multiple’ to mean ‘many’ appears to have originated in the US (as is often the case with these new usages).
‘Multiple’ derives ultimately from a Latin root, so you might expect me as a classicist to prefer it; but there’s a lot to be said for not forgetting the other sources of our language, not to mention the value of shorter words, so I’m going to keep using the Old English-derived ‘many’ as many times as possible.