comma vs traverse

comma

noun
  • A similar-looking subscript diacritical mark. 

  • A difference in the calculation of nearly identical intervals by different ways. 

  • A brief interval. 

  • In Ancient Greek rhetoric, a short clause, something less than a colon, originally denoted by comma marks. In antiquity it was defined as a combination of words having no more than eight syllables in all. It was later applied to longer phrases, e.g. the Johannine comma. 

  • The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list. 

  • Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polygonia, having a comma-shaped white mark on the underwings, especially Polygonia c-album and Polygonia c-aureum of North Africa, Europe, and Asia. 

  • A delimiting marker between items in a genetic sequence. 

verb
  • To place a comma or commas within text; to follow, precede, or surround a portion of text with commas. 

traverse

noun
  • A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal. 

  • In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade. 

  • A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows). 

  • Something that thwarts or obstructs. 

  • The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course. 

  • A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building. 

  • A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent. 

  • A series of points, with angles and distances measured between, traveled around a subject, usually for use as "control" i.e. angular reference system for later surveying work. 

  • A traverse board. 

verb
  • To use the motions of opposition or counteraction. 

  • To travel across, often under difficult conditions. 

  • To lay in a cross direction; to cross. 

  • To (make a cutting, an incline) across the gradients of a sloped face at safe rate. 

  • To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood. 

  • To deny formally. 

  • To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly. 

  • To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope). 

  • To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target. 

  • To act against; to thwart or obstruct. 

  • To pass over and view; to survey carefully. 

adj
  • Lying across; being in a direction across something else. 

adv
  • athwart; across; crosswise 

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