bronze vs tawny

bronze

adj
  • Having a reddish-brown colour. 

  • Made of bronze metal. 

  • Tanned; darkened as a result of exposure to the sun. 

noun
  • A naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals. 

  • A work of art made of bronze, especially a sculpture. 

  • A reddish-brown colour, the colour of bronze. 

  • Boldness; impudence. 

  • A bronze medal. 

verb
  • To color bronze; (of the sun) to tan. 

  • To change to a bronze or tan colour due to exposure to the sun. 

  • To make hard or unfeeling; to brazen. 

  • To plate with bronze. 

tawny

adj
  • Of a light brown to brownish orange colour. 

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. 

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). 

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