particle vs scruple

particle

noun
  • A part of speech which cannot be inflected. 

  • A little bit. 

  • A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. 

  • Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle. 

  • A part of speech that has no inherent lexical definition but must be associated with another word to impart meaning, often a grammatical category: for example, the English word to in a full infinitive phrase (to eat) or O in a vocative phrase (O Canada), or as a discourse marker (mmm). 

  • In the Roman Catholic church, a crumb of consecrated bread; also the smaller breads used in the communion of the laity. 

scruple

noun
  • Hesitation to act from the difficulty of determining what is right or expedient; doubt, hesitation or unwillingness due to motives of conscience. 

  • A weight of ¹⁄₂₈₈ of a pound, that is, twenty grains or one third of a dram, about 1.3 grams (symbol: ℈). 

  • A Hebrew unit of time equal to ¹⁄₁₀₈₀ hour. 

verb
  • To excite scruples in; to cause to scruple. 

  • To hesitate or be reluctant to act due to considerations of conscience or expedience. 

  • To regard with suspicion; to question. 

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