encourage vs uphold

encourage

verb
  • To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. 

  • To spur on, strongly recommend. 

  • To foster, give help or patronage 

uphold

verb
  • To support by approval or encouragement, to confirm (something which has been questioned) 

  • To keep erect; to support; to sustain; to keep from falling 

  • To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate. 

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