assurance vs pledge

assurance

noun
  • The act of assuring; a declaration tending to inspire full confidence; something designed to give confidence. 

  • Subjective certainty of one's salvation. 

  • Firmness of mind; undoubting steadiness; intrepidity; courage; confidence; self-reliance. 

  • Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death. Assurance is used in relation to life contingencies, and insurance in relation to other contingencies. It is called temporary assurance, in the time within which the contingent event must happen is limited. 

  • The state of being assured; total confidence or trust; a lack of doubt; certainty. 

  • Excessive boldness; impudence; audacity 

  • Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed. 

pledge

noun
  • A solemn promise to do something. 

  • The personal property so pledged, to be kept until the debt is paid. 

  • A bailment of personal property to secure payment of a debt without transfer of title. 

  • A person who has taken a pledge of allegiance to a college fraternity, but is not yet formally approved. 

  • A drinking toast. 

  • An asset or person temporarily handed over to guarantee the fulfilment of something promised, under threat of permanent loss of the thing handed over; surety, security, hostage. 

  • A promise to abstain from drinking alcohol. 

verb
  • To deposit something as a security; to pawn. 

  • To make a solemn promise (to do something). 

  • To give assurance of friendship by the act of drinking; to drink to one's health. 

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