compliment vs pay tribute to

compliment

noun
  • An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect. 

  • Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery. 

verb
  • To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone). 

pay tribute to

How often have the words compliment and pay tribute to occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )