bruiser vs ruffian

bruiser

noun
  • A tall, strong, heavily built person, usually a man, especially one prone to physical violence; a strong and tough person. 

  • In contact sports, an athlete whose size, strength, and/or aggressiveness make it likely that they will cause athletes on the opposing team to suffer physical punishment. 

  • A machine for bruising oats. 

  • A person who enjoys arguing with others. 

  • A professional boxer. 

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 bruiser and ruffian occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )