acerbate vs rankle

acerbate

verb
  • To make bitter or sour. 

  • To exasperate; to irritate. 

adj
  • Embittered; having a sour disposition or nature. 

rankle

verb
  • To cause irritation or deep bitterness. 

  • To fester. 

noun
  • A festering, embittering object or condition, either mental, or a physical sore or ulcer. 

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