rascal vs ruffian

rascal

noun
  • A dishonest person; a rogue, a scoundrel, a trickster. 

  • Sometimes diminutive: a cheeky person or creature; a troublemaker. 

  • A member of a criminal gang. 

ruffian

noun
  • A scoundrel, rascal, or unprincipled, deceitful, brutal and unreliable person. 

verb
  • To play the ruffian; to rage; to raise tumult. 

adj
  • Brutal; cruel; savagely boisterous; murderous. 

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