sycophant vs white knight

sycophant

noun
  • One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential. 

  • One who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favour or advantage from another; a servile flatterer. 

verb
  • To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously. 

white knight

noun
  • A hero, savior, or righteous individual. 

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

  • Someone who unnecessarily defends someone else. 

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

  • A mushroom of species Tricholoma album. 

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

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