boss vs publican

boss

noun
  • A person in charge of a business or company. 

  • Wife. 

  • An enemy, often at the end of a level, that is particularly challenging and must be beaten in order to progress. 

  • A swelling, lump or protuberance in an animal, person or object. 

  • A convex protuberance in hammered work, especially the rounded projection in the centre of a shield. 

  • A wooden vessel for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder. 

  • A knob or projection, usually at the intersection of ribs in a vault. 

  • A protrusion, frequently a cylinder of material that extends beyond a hole. 

  • A lump-like mass of rock, especially one projecting through a stratum of different rock. 

  • A target block, made of foam but historically made of hay bales, to which a target face is attached. 

  • A term of address to a man. 

  • A head or reservoir of water. 

  • A leader, the head of an organized group or team. 

  • A person who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor. 

  • The head of a political party in a given region or district. 

verb
  • To exercise authoritative control over; to tell (someone) what to do, often repeatedly. 

  • To decorate with bosses; to emboss. 

adj
  • Of excellent quality, first-rate. 

publican

noun
  • The manager or owner of a hotel. 

  • A tax collector, especially one working in Judea and Galilee during New Testament times (1st century C.E.) who was generally regarded as sinful for extorting more tax than was due, and as a traitor for serving the Roman Empire. 

  • The landlord (manager or owner) of a public house (“a bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging; a pub”). 

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