central vs thwart

central

adj
  • Having or containing the centre of something. 

  • Being in the centre. 

  • Exerting its action towards the peripheral organs. 

  • Being very important, or key to something. 

noun
  • centre 

thwart

adj
  • Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse. 

verb
  • To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent. 

noun
  • A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit. 

  • An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle. 

  • A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail. 

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