thrum vs tremolo

thrum

noun
  • A thrumming sound; a hum or vibration. 

  • Small pieces of rope yarn used for making mats or mops. 

  • Any short piece of leftover thread or yarn; a tuft or tassel. 

  • A fringe made of such threads. 

  • The ends of the warp threads in a loom which remain unwoven attached to the loom when the web is cut. 

  • A spicy taste; a tang. 

  • A threadlike part of a flower; a stamen. 

  • A tuft, bundle, or fringe of any threadlike structures, as hairs on a leaf, fibers of a root. 

  • A bundle of minute blood vessels, a plexus. 

  • A mat made of canvas and tufts of yarn. 

  • A shove out of place; a small displacement or fault along a seam. 

verb
  • To cause a steady rhythmic vibration, usually by plucking. 

  • To insert short pieces of rope-yarn or spun yarn in. 

  • To make a monotonous drumming noise. 

  • To furnish with thrums; to insert tufts in; to fringe. 

adj
  • Made of or woven from thrum. 

tremolo

noun
  • A variation in the volume of a note or a chord, evoking a tremor or quiver. 

  • The device in an organ that produces a tremolo effect. 

  • A rapid repetition of the same note, or an alternation between two or more notes. It can also be intended to mean a rapid and repetitive variation in pitch for the duration of a note. It is notated by a strong diagonal bar across the note stem, or a detached bar for a set of notes (or stemless notes). 

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