pale vs stain

pale

verb
  • To turn pale; to lose colour. 

  • To make pale; to diminish the brightness of. 

  • To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off. 

  • To become insignificant. 

adj
  • Feeble, faint. 

  • Light in color. 

  • Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.). 

noun
  • Limits, bounds (especially before of). 

  • A vertical band down the middle of a shield. 

  • A cheese scoop. 

  • The bounds of morality, good behaviour or judgment in civilized company, in the phrase beyond the pale. 

  • A wooden stake; a picket. 

stain

verb
  • To become stained; to take a stain. 

  • To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. 

  • To coat a surface with a stain 

  • To treat (a microscopic specimen) with a dye, especially one that dyes specific features 

  • To taint or tarnish someone's character or reputation 

  • To discolour. 

noun
  • A reagent or dye used to stain microscope specimens so as to make some structures visible. 

  • A discoloured spot or area. 

  • Any of a number of non-standard tinctures used in modern heraldry. 

  • A blemish on one's character or reputation. 

  • A substance used to soak into a surface and colour it. 

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