austere vs harsh

austere

adj
  • Grim or severe in manner or appearance 

  • Lacking decoration; trivial; not extravagant or gaudy 

harsh

adj
  • Severe or cruel. 

  • Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses. 

verb
  • To negatively criticize. 

  • To put a damper on (a mood). 

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