handler vs operant

handler

noun
  • One who handles something (especially manually) or someone. 

  • An advisor or manager to a person occupying a position or office to which the speaker believes the holder does not possess the typical qualifications and/or experience. 

  • A subroutine that handles a particular situation such as an event or exception. 

  • A controller, trainer, someone who handles a specified thing, animal or person (especially a prizefighter). 

operant

noun
  • An operative person or thing. 

  • Any of a class of behaviors that produce consequences by operating (i.e., acting) upon the environment. 

adj
  • That operates to produce an effect. 

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