hern vs verge

hern

noun
  • Corner, nook. 

  • Heron. 

  • A recess beside a wide chimney-fireside. 

  • A corner of angular piece of land; a nook of land projecting into another district, parish, or field. 

pron
  • Hers; her own. 

verge

noun
  • An edge or border. 

  • 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 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. 

  • An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen. 

  • 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 hern and verge occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )