asperse vs belittle

asperse

verb
  • To falsely or maliciously charge another; to slander. 

  • To sprinkle or scatter (liquid or dust). 

belittle

verb
  • To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is, especially as a way of showing contempt or deprecation. 

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