chestnut vs tawny

chestnut

adj
  • Of a deep reddish-brown colour, like that of a chestnut. 

noun
  • A round or oval horny plate found on the inner side of the leg of a horse or other animal, similar to a birthmark on a human. 

  • A tree or shrub of the genus Castanea. 

  • The wood of a chestnut tree. 

  • A dark, reddish-brown colour, as seen on the fruit of the chestnut tree. 

  • A reddish-brown horse. 

  • A nut of this tree or shrub. 

  • An old joke; a worn-out meme, phrase, ploy, etc. so often repeated as to have grown tiresome or ineffective (often in the phrase "old chestnut"). 

  • The horse-chestnut. 

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 chestnut and tawny occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )