favor vs handicap

favor

noun
  • The object of regard; person or thing favoured. 

  • A small gift; a party favor. 

  • Mildness or mitigation of punishment; lenity. 

  • A kind or helpful deed; an instance of voluntarily assisting (someone). 

  • Partiality; bias 

  • Goodwill; benevolent regard. 

verb
  • To resemble; especially, to look like (another person). 

  • To do a favor [noun sense 1] for; to show beneficence toward. 

  • To look upon fondly; to prefer. 

  • To use more often. 

  • To encourage, conduce to 

  • To treat with care. 

handicap

noun
  • The disadvantage itself, in particular physical or mental disadvantages of people. 

  • Something that prevents, hampers, or hinders. 

  • An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race (or other contest of skill) to the competitor possessing disadvantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success. 

  • A race or similar contest in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors. 

verb
  • To estimate betting odds. 

  • To encumber with a handicap in any contest. 

  • To place at disadvantage. 

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