basis vs touchstone

basis

noun
  • An underlying condition or circumstance. 

  • A starting point, base or foundation for an argument or hypothesis. 

  • A regular frequency. 

  • A physical base or foundation. 

  • In a vector space, a linearly independent set of vectors spanning the whole vector space. 

  • Amount paid for an investment, including commissions and other expenses. 

  • A collection of subsets ("basis elements") of a set, such that this collection covers the set, and for any two basis elements which both contain an element of the set, there is a third basis element contained in the intersection of the first two, which also contains that element. 

  • The difference between the cash price a dealer pays to a farmer for his produce and an agreed reference price, which is usually the futures price at which the given crop is trading at a commodity exchange. 

touchstone

noun
  • A standard of comparison or evaluation. 

  • A stone used to check the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them to leave a visible trace. 

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