associate vs sidekick

associate

noun
  • Somebody with whom one works, coworker, colleague. 

  • A companion; a comrade. 

  • One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance. 

  • A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner. 

  • One of a pair of elements of an integral domain (or a ring) such that the two elements are divisible by each other (or, equivalently, such that each one can be expressed as the product of the other with a unit). 

  • A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges. 

adj
  • Joined with another or others and having lower status. 

  • Having partial status or privileges. 

  • Following or accompanying; concomitant. 

verb
  • To connect or join together; combine. 

  • To join as a partner, ally, or friend. 

  • To endorse. 

  • To join in or form a league, union, or association. 

  • To spend time socially; keep company. 

  • To be associative. 

  • To connect evidentially, or in the mind or imagination. 

sidekick

noun
  • An assistant to another person, especially to a superior or more important person. 

  • In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a good foil of the protagonist, a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character. 

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