gem vs pearl

gem

noun
  • Any precious or highly valued thing or person. 

  • A type of geometrid moth, Orthonama obstipata. 

  • Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, such as a small picture, a verse of poetry, or an epigram. 

  • A package containing programs or libraries for the Ruby programming language. 

  • A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine. 

verb
  • To adorn with, or as if with, gems. 

pearl

noun
  • Something precious. 

  • A light-colored tern. 

  • A fish allied to the turbot; the brill. 

  • A whitish speck or film on the eye. 

  • A capsule of gelatin or similar substance containing liquid for e.g. medicinal application. 

  • Nacre, or mother-of-pearl. 

  • One of the circle of tubercles which form the bur on a deer's antler. 

  • A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery. 

  • A fringe or border. 

  • A valuable little nugget of information; especially, an aphorism or tip that is operationally useful for decision-making. 

  • The clitoris. 

verb
  • To cause to resemble pearls in shape; to make into small round grains. 

  • To cause to resemble pearls in lustre or iridescence. 

  • To resemble pearl or pearls. 

  • To sink the nose of one's surfboard into the water, often on takeoff. 

  • To set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl. 

  • Of the nose of the surfboard: to sink in this manner. 

  • To hunt for pearls 

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