handicap vs merit

handicap

verb
  • To estimate betting odds. 

  • To encumber with a handicap in any contest. 

  • To place at disadvantage. 

noun
  • 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. 

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

  • 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. 

merit

verb
  • To be deserving or worthy. 

  • To deserve, to earn. 

noun
  • Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing. 

  • A claim to commendation or a reward. 

  • A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence. 

  • Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward. 

  • The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment. 

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