backstory vs sham

backstory

noun
  • A fictitious account of a person's history designed to conceal their actual history and motives. 

  • The previous life and experiences of a person, especially a character in a dramatic work, but also a real-life person. 

  • A prequel. 

sham

noun
  • A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine. 

  • A decorative cover for a pillow. 

  • A false front, or removable ornamental covering. 

  • Trickery, hoaxing. 

  • Champagne. 

adj
  • mock 

  • Intended to deceive; false. 

  • counterfeit; unreal 

  • See also Thesaurus:fake 

verb
  • To obtrude by fraud or imposition. 

  • To deceive, cheat, lie. 

  • To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign. 

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