delicacy vs subtlety

delicacy

noun
  • Fineness or elegance of construction or appearance. 

  • Something appealing, usually a pleasing food, especially a choice dish of a certain culture suggesting rarity and refinement. 

  • The quality of being delicate. 

  • Refinement in taste or discrimination. 

  • Tact and propriety; the need for such tact. 

  • Frailty of health or fitness. 

subtlety

noun
  • The quality of being scarcely noticeable or difficult to discern. 

  • The quality of being done in a clever way that is not obvious or not direct; the quality of being carefully thought out. 

  • The quality of being able to notice or understand things that are not obvious. 

  • An instance of being subtle, a subtle thing, especially a subtle argument or distinction. 

  • The quality of being able to achieve one's aims through clever, delicate or indirect methods. 

  • An ornate medieval illusion dish or table decoration, especially when made from one thing but crafted to look like another. 

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