pilot vs sample

pilot

verb
  • To test or have a preliminary trial of (an idea, a new product, etc.) 

  • To guide (a vessel) through coastal waters. 

  • To serve as the leading locomotive on a double-headed train. 

  • To control (an aircraft or watercraft). 

noun
  • A person who steers a ship, a helmsman. 

  • A pilot light. 

  • A short plug, sometimes made interchangeable, at the end of a counterbore to guide the tool. 

  • A guide book for maritime navigation. 

  • A racing driver. 

  • An instrument for detecting the compass error. 

  • A person authorised to drive such a vehicle during an escort. 

  • Something serving as a test or trial. 

  • The heading or excavation of relatively small dimensions, first made in the driving of a larger tunnel. 

  • A sample episode of a proposed TV series produced to decide if it should be made or not. If approved, typically the first episode of an actual TV series. 

  • A person who is in charge of the controls of an aircraft. 

  • One who flies a kite. 

  • A cowcatcher. 

  • A person who knows well the depths and currents of a harbor or coastal area, who is hired by a vessel to help navigate the harbor or coast. 

  • A guide or escort through an unknown or dangerous area. 

  • A pilot vehicle. 

adj
  • Being a vehicle to warn other road users of the presence of an oversize vehicle/combination. 

  • Used to control or activate another device. 

  • Made or used as a test or demonstration of capability. 

sample

verb
  • To take or to test a sample or samples of. 

  • To reduce a continuous signal (such as a sound wave) to a discrete signal. 

  • To make or show something similar to a sample. 

  • To reuse a portion of (an existing sound recording) in a new piece of music. 

noun
  • A small quantity of food for tasting, typically given away for free. 

  • A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation or questioning, to provide statistical information about the population. 

  • Gratuitous borrowing of easily recognised phases (or moments) from other music (or movies) in a recording. 

  • A part or snippet of something taken or presented for inspection, or shown as evidence of the quality of the whole; a specimen. 

  • A small piece of some goods, for determining quality, colour, etc., typically given away for free. 

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