nerve vs sand

nerve

noun
  • Patience; stamina; endurance, fortitude. 

  • A neuron. 

  • The elastic resistance of raw rubber or other polymers to permanent deformation during processing. 

  • mental agitation caused by fear, stress or other negative emotions. 

  • A vein in a leaf; a grain in wood. 

  • A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics. 

  • Courage; boldness; audacity; gall. 

  • One's neural structures considered collectively as, and conceptually equated with, one's psyche; 

verb
  • May their example nerve us to face the enemy. 

  • To give strength; to supply energy or vigour. 

  • To give courage. 

sand

noun
  • A moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life (referring to the sand in an hourglass). 

  • A beach or other expanse of sand. 

  • "sand in [someone's] eyes" (idiom) 

  • Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction. 

  • A sandpiper. 

  • A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale. 

  • A light beige colour, like that of typical sand. 

adj
  • Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand. 

verb
  • To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it. 

  • To blot ink using sand. 

  • To cover with sand. 

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