recreant vs white knight

recreant

noun
  • Somebody who is recreant, who yields in combat; a coward or traitor. 

adj
  • Unfaithful to someone, or to one's duties or honour; disloyal, false. 

white knight

noun
  • Someone who unnecessarily defends someone else. 

  • An individual or corporation that intends to acquire another company in order to avert a hostile takeover. 

  • A man who defends a woman in debate etc. in an attempt to gain her favour. 

  • A mushroom of species Tricholoma album. 

  • A hero, savior, or righteous individual. 

verb
  • To unnecessarily defend someone, especially in an attempt to gain favour. 

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