ferment vs merry-go-round

ferment

noun
  • A state of agitation or of turbulent change. 

  • Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation. 

  • A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation. 

  • A catalyst. 

verb
  • To stir up, agitate, cause unrest or excitement in. 

  • To react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew. 

merry-go-round

noun
  • A meaningless cycle; a bustle of activity that gets nowhere 

  • A piece of playground equipment consisting of a circular platform that is made to revolve by pushing while users stand on it. 

  • A series of singles and doubles that allow the batting team to score while still having runners on base who can be driven in by the next batter. 

  • A carousel; a pleasure ride, typically found at fairs and amusement parks, consisting of a slowly revolving circular platform on which various seats are fixed, frequently shaped like horses or other animals. 

  • A freight train of hopper wagons which loads and unloads its cargo while moving, a balloon loop being provided at power stations. 

  • A cooperative scheme in which members regularly contribute money to a pool, and the collected money is then paid out to one of the members, repeating so that every member has eventually received the collected money. 

How often have the words ferment and merry-go-round occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )