pretense vs veneer

pretense

noun
  • Intention or purpose not real but professed. 

  • An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality. 

  • A false or hypocritical profession 

  • An unsupported claim made or implied. 

veneer

noun
  • An attractive appearance that covers or disguises one's true nature or feelings. 

  • A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material. 

verb
  • To apply veneer to. 

  • To disguise with apparent goodness. 

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