commend vs pay tribute to

commend

verb
  • To recommend. 

  • To entrust or commit to the care of someone else. 

  • To praise or acclaim. 

  • To mention by way of courtesy, implying remembrance and goodwill. 

  • To congratulate or reward. 

pay tribute to

How often have the words commend and pay tribute to occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )