commendation vs laurels

commendation

noun
  • An award or recognition for performance; a medal. 

  • The act of commending; praise; favorable representation in words; recommendation. 

  • That which is the ground of approbation or praise. 

  • A message of affection or respect; compliments; greeting. 

laurels

noun
  • Honors. From the Ancient Greek practice of crowning victors with a branch from the laurel bush, sacred to Apollo. 

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