dulcisonant

English

Etymology

From Latin dulcis (“sweet”) + sonāns, present participle of sonō (“to sound”), after Latin dulcisonus.

Adjective

dulcisonant (comparative more dulcisonant, superlative most dulcisonant)

1. (literary, rare) Sweetly sounding.
   • [1656, T[homas] B[lount], Glossographia: or a Dictionary Interpreting All Such Hard Words, Whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Teutonick, Belgick, British or Saxon, as Are Now Used in Our Refined English Tongue. […]‎^[1], London: […] Tho. Newcomb:

     Dulciſonant (dulciſonus) that ſounds ſweetly.]

   • 1702, M. Smith, The Vision, or a Prospect of Death, Heav’n and Hell. With a Description of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment. A Sacred Poem., London: […] Andrew Bell, page 90:

     Soft Eccho’s ore the Wall did oft deſcend / Of Harmony, and all around diſtend / Dulciſonant, with Cloſes raviſhing, / Which perfum’d Blaſts of Æthur hither bring.

   • 1808, Thomas Gilliland, The Trap: A Moral, Philosophical, and Satirical Work; Delineating the Snares in Which Kings, Princes, and Their Subjects Have Been Caught, Since the Days of Adam; Including Reflections on the Present Causes of Conjugal Infidelity. Dedicated to the Ladies. In Two Volumes., volume I, London: […] T. Goddard, page 52:

     They breathe the most liquid spirits, and dart forth those visual rays, which may be called the arrows of love, as they so forcibly penetrate the heart with the most dulcisonant harmony, affect the imagination, and link one another in an imperceptible love-knot.

   • 1861, Bracebridge Hemyng, The Dark Cloud with the Silver Lining, London: James Blackwood, page 379:

     Your words are as gracious, and your voice as dulcisonant as an angel’s;

   • 1864 April 16, “The Bondage of Brandon”, in The London Reader of Literature, Science, Art, and General Information, volume II, number 49, chapter III, page 706, column 2:

     A voice as dulcisonant as that of Hebe or the tones which flowed from the lute of Apollo fell upon his ears.

   • 1869, Compton Reade, Basilissa; The Free of a Secret Craft. A Poem., Oxford: T. & G. Shrimpton; London: Whittaker & Co., page 12:

     Long ere the last modulation had died from the lips of the songstress, / That soft dulcisonant queen, most honour’d by men in the wond’ring, / Amaranth lov’d Basilissa;

   • 2020, Pope Urban VIII, Robert Nixon, transl., “In Praise of the Countryside”, in Pope Urban VIII and Pope Alexander VII: Selected Poetry: Lyrical Musings of Two Baroque Pontiffs, Eugene, Ore.: Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 10:

     Blue-pinioned swallows soar on graceful wing; / Their odes dulcisonant, delight to sing.