aid vs distress

aid

noun
  • Help; assistance; succor, relief. 

  • An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort. 

  • A helper; an assistant. 

  • An exchequer loan. 

  • Something which helps; a material source of help. 

  • A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions. 

  • The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse. 

verb
  • To climb with the use of aids such as pitons. 

  • To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist. 

distress

noun
  • Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature. 

  • A cause of such discomfort. 

  • The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction. 

  • Serious danger. 

  • A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt. 

  • An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt. 

verb
  • To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age. 

  • To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain. 

  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone. 

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