orange vs tawny

orange

noun
  • An orange-coloured and orange-flavoured cordial. 

  • An orange-coloured and orange-flavoured soft drink. 

  • Orange juice. 

  • An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis. 

  • The colour of a ripe fruit of an orange tree, midway between red and yellow. 

  • The fruit of the orange tree; a citrus fruit with a slightly sour flavour. 

adj
  • Having the colour of the fruit of an orange tree; yellowred; reddish-yellow. 

verb
  • To color orange. 

  • To become orange. 

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). 

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. 

adj
  • Of a light brown to brownish orange colour. 

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