lilac vs tawny

lilac

adj
  • Having a pale purple colour. 

noun
  • A flower of the lilac shrub. 

  • A pale purple color, the color of some lilac flowers. 

  • A large shrub of the genus Syringa, especially Syringa vulgaris, bearing white, pale-pink, or purple flowers. 

tawny

adj
  • Of a light brown to brownish orange colour. 

verb
  • To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn. 

  • To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn. 

noun
  • Synonym of tenné (“a rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown”) 

  • In full tawny port: a sweet, fortified port wine which is blended and matured in wooden casks. 

  • Tawny owl. 

  • Tawny frogmouth. 

  • The common bullfinch or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula). 

  • A light brown to brownish orange colour. 

  • Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name). 

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