percussion vs pluck

percussion

noun
  • The repeated striking of an object to break or shape it, as in percussion drilling. 

  • The detonation of a percussion cap in a firearm. 

  • The tapping of the body as an aid to medical diagnosis. 

  • The sound so produced. 

  • The outer side of the hand. 

  • The collision of two bodies in order to produce a sound. 

  • The section of an orchestra or band containing percussion instruments; such instruments considered as a group; in bands, may be separate from drum kits. 

pluck

noun
  • An instance of plucking or pulling sharply. 

  • Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence. 

  • The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals. 

  • Cheap wine. 

verb
  • To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation. 

  • To pull something sharply; to pull something out 

  • To pull or twitch sharply. 

  • To remove feathers from a bird. 

  • To play a string instrument pizzicato. 

  • To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc. 

  • Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing. 

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