in vicious circle vs pointed

in vicious circle

pointed

adj
  • Directed negatively at a person or topic. 

  • Having a relevance to the matter at hand: pertinent, relevant. 

  • That has a named, but otherwise arbitrary, point (called the basepoint) that remains unchanged during subsequent discussion and is kept track of during all operations. 

  • Sharp, barbed; not dull. 

  • In animals, having a coat pattern with points, that is, darkening of the extremities. 

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