stern vs sympathetic

stern

adj
  • Grim and forbidding in appearance. 

  • Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner. 

verb
  • To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water. 

noun
  • A bird, the black tern. 

  • The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog. 

  • The hinder part of anything. 

  • The post of management or direction. 

  • The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel. 

sympathetic

adj
  • A supernatural connection or power resulting from two items having the same form or some other correspondence. 

  • Designed in a sensitive or appropriate way. 

  • Relating to musical tones produced by sympathetic vibration or to strings so tuned as to sound by sympathetic vibration. 

  • Showing approval of or favor towards an idea or action. 

  • Relating to or denoting the part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves arising from ganglia near the middle part of the spinal cord, supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands, and balancing the action of the parasympathetic nerves. 

  • Relating to, producing, or denoting an effect which arises through an affinity, interdependence, or mutual association. 

  • Of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy. 

  • Attracting the liking of others. 

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