COCA failed

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Hi, I have always checked words and phrases frequency with COCA but a few minutes ago surprisingly I met a phrase that COCA failed to find a match for it.

That phrase is "cruet-stand".

Even for cruet it finds 17 matches.
Isn't cruet a common word?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

MIGIsn't cruet a common word?

Not in American English. You should find more in a British corpus.

MIG · Answer

Thank you Mister Micawber.
Despite cruet-stand being more common in British English I have found less matches in BNC than what I found in COCA , 8 versus 17, and still no matches for cruet-stand. I think COCA's database is richer.

Mister Micawber · Answer

MIGI have found less matches in BNC than what I found in COCA , 8 versus 17, and still no matches for cruet-stand.

I got the same results. Where did you find 'cruet-stand' in the first place?

MIG · Answer

Mister MicawberWhere did you find 'cruet-stand' in the first place?

During reading a short story written by Alice Munro, the Nobel prize winner, named/titled Carried away.

The white tablecloths were changed every week and in the meantime were protected by oilcloth mats. In winter, the dining room smelled of these mats wiped by a kitchen rag, and of coal fumes from the furnace, and beef gravy and dried potatoes and onions—a smell not unpleasant to anybody coming in hungry from the cold. On each table was a little cruet stand with the bottle of brown sauce, the bottle of tomato sauce, and the pot of horseradish.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Hmm.  Well, all I can suggest is that it might be a primarily Canadian expression, then.

MIG · Answer

Thank you Mister Micawber.

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