Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
A reasonable misunderstanding perhaps, since dulcet tones is rarely used other than ironically.
However, if nails on a blackboard sound hurty to your lug holes, Taylor is unlikely to win you over with his dull-set tones.
... me almost a great sense of pleasure because some of the things he said have actually stuck and I almost ream off the periodic tables with his dull-set tones.
... the wind on the clothes line outside he closed his eyes hearing the soft dull set tones of his mother’s piano being played downstairs …
... doomy, psychedelic and seemingly endless until the dull set tones of a didgeridoo, yes… a didgeridoo bring proceedings to a close: ...
Offline
Good one. Here’s another hit, from a record of historic incidents of 1893 at a college and seminary in Maryland. On special occasions, they liked to pen odes and sing ballads.
Here’s the second verse of a ballad sung at the Centennial celebrations. No telling whether “dull-set” here is innocent or a cutting dash:October 11, 1894. The Barbecue Paper was read after breakfast and occupied an hour and a half, but was listened to with interest by Faculty as well as by students. This year’s paper was delicate, tasteful and clever. It was in prose and verse intermingled, and consisted in the main of a romaunt interspersed with quips and cuts and dashes at various companions who had become notable for any assailable peculiarity.
II. They gather at the vesper hour beneath the spreading trees,
And oft these sounds of ‘dull-set’ strains are wafted on the breeze:
“Kentucky Home,” “Down on the Farm,” “We’re Going Home Tomorrow,”
And if tobacco you possess, the whole blamed gang will borrow.
Barbecue Paper
Last edited by David Bird (2011-12-16 14:02:20)
Offline
Are dull set tones the ones made on a dullsetmir?
“Dulcet” is clearly on the way out. One hardly ever sees a more straight-line slope on Ngram.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline