extremity vs verge

extremity

noun
  • An extreme measure. 

  • The most extreme or furthest point of something. 

  • A hand or foot. 

  • A limb (“major appendage of a human or animal such as an arm, leg, or wing”). 

verge

noun
  • An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen. 

  • A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger. 

  • The grassy area between the footpath and the street; a tree lawn; a grassed strip running alongside either side of an outback road. 

  • The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, by holding it in the hand and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge. 

  • An edge or border. 

  • An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland. 

  • The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. 

  • The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft. 

  • A circumference; a circle; a ring. 

  • The eaves or edge of the roof that projects over the gable of a roof. 

verb
  • To be or come very close; to border; to approach. 

  • To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope. 

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