attribute vs refer

attribute

verb
  • To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc. 

  • To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone. 

noun
  • That which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident. 

  • A semantic item with which a method or other code element may be decorated. 

  • An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention. 

  • A word that qualifies a noun. 

  • A characteristic or quality of a thing. 

  • An option or setting belonging to some object. 

refer

verb
  • To mention (something); to direct attention (to something) 

  • To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object. 

  • To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere. 

  • To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to. 

  • To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation. 

  • Required to resit an examination. 

  • To be referential to another element in a sentence. 

  • To direct the attention of (someone toward something) 

noun
  • A blurb on the front page of a newspaper issue or section that refers the reader to the full story inside the issue or section by listing its slug or headline and its page number. 

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