saffron vs tawny

saffron

adj
  • Having an orange-yellow colour. 

verb
  • To add saffron to (a food), for taste, colour etc. 

  • To dye (a fabric, garment, etc.) with a saffron-based dye. 

  • To give a saffron colour to (something). 

  • To colour (a metal or wooden surface) with a gilding product containing saffron. 

  • To embellish. 

noun
  • An orange-yellow colour, the colour of a lion's pelt. 

  • A spice (seasoning) and colouring agent made from the stigma and part of the style of the plant, sometimes or formerly also used as a dye and insect repellent. 

  • The plant Crocus sativus, a crocus. 

tawny

adj
  • Of a light brown to brownish orange colour. 

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). 

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. 

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