gaffe vs howler

gaffe

noun
  • A foolish and embarrassing error, especially one made in public. 

howler

noun
  • A painfully obvious mistake. 

  • A tremendous lie; a whopper. 

  • A bitterly cold day. 

  • A person hired to howl at a funeral. 

  • A serious accident (especially to come a howler or go a howler; compare come a cropper). 

  • That which howls, especially an animal such as a wolf or a howler monkey. 

  • A hilarious joke. 

  • A heavy fall. 

  • A 32-ounce ceramic, plastic, or stainless steel jug used to transport draft beer. 

  • A person who expresses aggression openly in the form of threats. 

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