attach vs tether

attach

verb
  • To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; with to. 

  • To adhere; to be attached. 

  • To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; with to. 

  • To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest. 

  • To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively). 

tether

verb
  • to connect something to something else. 

  • to connect a cellular smartphone to another personal computer in order to give it access to a hotspot. 

  • to restrict something with a tether. 

noun
  • a strong rope or line that connects a sailor's safety harness to the boat's jackstay 

  • a rope, cable etc. that holds something in place whilst allowing some movement 

  • the limit of one's abilities, resources etc. 

  • The cardinal number three in an old counting system used in Teesdale and Swaledale. (Variant of tethera) 

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