caravan vs van

caravan

noun
  • A furnished vehicle towed behind a car, etc., and used as a dwelling when stationary. 

  • A convoy or procession of travelers, their vehicles and cargo, and any pack animals, especially camels crossing a desert. 

verb
  • To travel in a caravan (procession). 

  • To travel and/or live in a caravan (vehicle). 

van

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

  • A shovel used in cleansing ore. 

  • 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 caravan and van occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )