barb vs calamus

barb

noun
  • One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane. 

  • A barbiturate. 

  • Armor for a horse. 

  • A hurtful or disparaging remark. 

  • The sciaenid fish Menticirrhus americanus, found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. 

  • A blackish or dun variety of pigeon, originally brought from Barbary. 

  • Paps, or little projections, of the mucous membrane, which mark the opening of the submaxillary glands under the tongue in horses and cattle. The name is mostly applied when the barbs are inflamed and swollen. 

  • The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else. 

  • A hair or bristle ending in a double hook. 

  • Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family. 

  • A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it. 

  • A plastic fastener, shaped roughly like a capital I (with serifs), used to attach socks etc. to their packaging. 

  • The Barbary horse, a superior breed introduced from Barbary into Spain by the Moors. 

verb
  • To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc. 

  • To cut (hair). 

  • To cover a horse in armor. 

calamus

noun
  • A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather. 

  • Synonym of fistula (“tube for sucking Eucharist wine”) 

  • A palm in genus Calamus, of rattan palms. 

  • The sweet flag, Acorus calamus. 

  • A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies. 

How often have the words barb and calamus occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )