banister vs handrail

banister

noun
  • The handrail on the side of a staircase. 

  • One of the vertical supports of a handrail; a baluster. 

verb
  • To construct a banister 

  • To act as a banister 

handrail

noun
  • A rail which can be held, such as on the side of a staircase, ramp or other walkway, and serving as a support or guard. 

  • A moving continuous belt-like rail on either side of an escalator which users can hold on to for support. 

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