khaki vs tawny

khaki

noun
  • A dull, yellowish-brown colour, the colour of dust. 

  • khaki (Pantone) 

  • A British person (from the colour of the uniform of British troops, originally in the Second Boer War; compare rooinek). (In this sense the plural generally is khakies.) 

  • khaki green 

  • A soldier wearing a khaki uniform. 

  • Khaki clothing or uniform. 

  • Khaki green, a dull green colour. 

  • A strong cloth of wool or cotton, often used for military or other uniforms. 

adj
  • Dust-coloured; of the colour of dust. 

tawny

noun
  • A light brown to brownish orange colour. 

  • 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). 

  • Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name). 

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. 

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