palimpsest vs stub

palimpsest

noun
  • Something bearing the traces of an earlier, erased form. 

  • The partial erasure of or superimposition on an older society or culture by a newer one. 

  • A manuscript or document that has been erased or scraped clean, for reuse of the paper, parchment, vellum, or other medium on which it was written. 

  • Geological features thought to be related to features or effects below the surface. 

  • Memory that has been erased and re-written. 

  • Circular features believed to be lunar craters that have been obliterated by later volcanic activity. 

verb
  • To scrape clean, as in parchment, for reuse. 

  • On paper: to reuse, often by erasure or change of pen direction or color. Especially fueled by Earth Day. 

stub

noun
  • A piece of certain paper items, designed to be torn off and kept for record or identification purposes. 

  • An old and worn horseshoe nail. 

  • A placeholder procedure that has the signature of the planned procedure but does not yet implement the intended behavior. 

  • Stub iron. 

  • A row heading in a table (with horizontal reference, whereas a column heading has vertical reference). 

  • An unequal first or last interest calculation period, as a part of a financial swap contract 

  • A procedure that translates requests from external systems into a format suitable for processing and then submits those requests for processing. 

  • The smallest remainder of a smoked cigarette; a butt. 

  • The remaining part of the docked tail of a dog 

  • Something blunted, stunted, or cut short, such as stubble or a stump. 

  • A page providing only minimal information and intended for later development. 

  • A pen with a short, blunt nib. 

verb
  • To remove a plant by pulling it out by the roots. 

  • To jam, hit, or bump, especially a toe. 

  • To remove most of a tree, bush, or other rooted plant by cutting it close to the ground. 

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