nerves vs tension

nerves

tension

verb
  • To place an object in tension, to pull or place strain on. 

noun
  • The condition of being held in a state between two or more forces, which are acting in opposition to each other. 

  • State of an elastic object which is stretched in a way which increases its length. 

  • A feeling of nervousness, excitement, or fear that is created in a movie, book, etc.; suspense. 

  • Force transmitted through a rope, string, cable, or similar object (used with prepositions on, in, or of, e.g., "The tension in the cable is 1000 N", to convey that the same magnitude of force applies to objects attached to both ends). 

  • Voltage. Usually only the terms low tension, high tension, and extra-high tension, and the abbreviations LT, HT, and EHT are used. They are not precisely defined; LT is normally a few volts, HT a few hundreds of volts, and EHT thousands of volts. 

  • Psychological state of being tense. 

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