trepan vs van

trepan

noun
  • A tool used to bore through rock when sinking shafts. 

  • A surgical instrument used to remove a circular section of bone from the skull; a trephine. 

verb
  • To create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means. 

  • To use a trepan; to trephine. 

van

noun
  • A shovel used in cleansing ore. 

  • A large towable vehicle equipped for the repair of structures that cannot easily be moved. 

  • A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain. 

  • A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus. 

  • A wing with which the air is beaten. 

  • An enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van. 

verb
  • To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel. 

  • To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses). 

  • Of law enforcement: to arrest (not necessarily in a van; derived from party van). 

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