backbone vs perseverance

backbone

noun
  • Courage, fortitude, or strength. 

  • The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals. 

  • Any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure. 

perseverance

noun
  • Continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure. 

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