A Renaissance woodwind instrument with a soft, sweet sound, similar to a small bassoon.
From Latin 'dulcis' (sweet) plus the diminutive suffix, arriving in English through German 'Dulzian.' The name literally means 'the sweet one' and referred to its mellow tone.
Medieval musicians named this instrument specifically for how it sounded—it's literally 'the sweet one'—showing how directly musical instrument names often describe their personalities!
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