Word Confusion: Tool vs Tule vs Tulle

Posted April 9, 2019 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
6 Jan 2023

I know most people are unaware of tulle. Even brides don’t know about it until they’re suddenly planning a wedding. I reckoned that even more people were unaware of tule. Fortunately, most people know about tool.

What turned out to be scary was when I googled tool to find images for, you know, tools(!), and I got all these pictures of matching thread up to different colors of tulle. Hullo!?!?!

If a company is promoting tulle and threads, I really, really would expect them to know the difference between tool and tulle! Even if tulle is sometimes used as a tool to create an effect. I know I won’t be buying anything from a company that confuses these two items.

I will confess that the only reason I know about tule is from the time I spent hiking in California . . .

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Tool Tule Tulle

An old wooden drawer-like toolbox brimming over with a variety of hammers

Vintage Toolbox by Ctsu is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

I do adore vintage tools.


A view of a tule marshland

Tule Wetlands by Gentry George with the USFWS is under the CC0 license, via Pixnio.com.

Close-up of a pale gray tulle embroidered with silver sequins

Embroidered Tulle is under the CC0 license, via PxHere.

Tulle is so useful as an “invisible” background.

Part of Grammar:
Noun;
Verb, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: tools
Gerund: tooling

Third person present verb: tools
Past tense or past participle: tooled
Present participle: tooling

Noun

Plural: tules

Noun

Plural: tulle

Noun:
A device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function

  • Any instrument of manual operation
  • A thing used in an occupation or pursuit
  • A person used or exploited by another
  • [Computing] A piece of software that carries out a particular function, typically creating or modifying another program

The cutting or machining part of a lathe, planer, drill, or similar machine

  • The machine itself

A distinct design in the ornamentation of a leather book cover

  • A small stamp or roller used to make an ornamented design

[Vulgar slang] A man’s penis

  • Stupid, irritating, or contemptible man

Anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose

A person manipulated by another for the latter’s own ends

  • Cat’s-paw

[Firearms, Gunnery, Ordnance, and Artillery; British slang] A pistol or gun

[Underworld slang] A pickpocket

A necessary medium for or adjunct to one’s profession

Verb, intransitive:
Equip or be equipped with implements for industrial production

To work with an implement

[Chiefly North American; informal; with adverbial of direction] Drive or ride in a casual or leisurely manner

[British; informal; tool up or be tooled up] Be or become armed, especially for criminal activity

Verb, transitive:
[Usually be tooled] Impress a design on leather, especially a leather book cover

To work or shape with an implement

To work decoratively with a hand implement

[Slang] To drive a vehicle

To equip with implements or machinery

Dress (stone) with a chisel

A large bulrush that is abundant in marshy areas of California A soft, fine silk, cotton, acetate, rayon, or nylon material like net, used for making veils and dresses, as a trimming for hats, etc.
Examples:
Noun:
Has anyone seen my gardening tools?

Computers are an essential tool in my life.

The ability to write clearly is a tool of the trade.

The beautiful Estella is Miss Havisham’s tool.

Developers will be offered co-marketing money, free software, and developer tools.

There are a variety of techniques used in tooling, including blind and gold.

Performed by hand, book covers were tooled using a variety of tools, such as pallets, fillets, gouges, and rolls.

Most tooling tools were of brass with a die-sunk design in the metal face or circumference.

The drawing was removed, and a variety of modeling tools were used to tool the foil in relief.

“Hey, baby, wanna see my tool,” he leered.

That guy is such a tool.

The companies are working with open-source compiler developers to create software development tools for programmers.

Education is a tool for success.

Numbers are the tools of the mathematician’s trade.

Verb, intransitive:
They were tooling up for production.

Have you seen Jim tooling around town in a pink Rolls-Royce?

They were tooled up with baseball bats.

I saw my doctor on Wednesday and got tooled up with some antibiotics, which finally seem to be doing the trick.

I adore my Olfa cutter for how easy it is to tool around the outside of a clothing pattern.

Verb, transitive:
In tooling gold leaf, use a gold knife to lift it and cut it to fit.

It’s really a beautiful little piece of work, bound in leather that’s been tooled with a lovely design of roses and vines.

He tooled the car along the treacherous path.

There were eight volumes bound in green leather and tooled in gold.

The factory must be tooled to produce the models.

Long gone are the tooled finishes from hand-held chisels that could render differences in texture across the face of a stone block or from one stone to the next.

There are two species in the family Cyperaceae: Scirpus acutus and Scirpus validus.

Egrets, terns, mallards, pelicans, eagles, tundra swans, and herons browsed amid thickets of 10-foot-tall bulrushes known as tule.

In my youth, this was a murky place filled with stands of tule reeds, bubbling pools of stagnant water, and little streams that ran between islands of bushes and reeds.

The tule reeds might be ripped out, damaging the slough’s filtration system.

By late summer, it has dried almost entirely — nothing but weary, bent tules and polygonal cracks in sunbaked mud.

Digging deeper, he would have found long-dormant seeds of marsh sedges and the sleeping rhizomes of tules and cattails.

“The ruffed grouse and the tule hens are plentiful, and of course nothing can be more delicious” (Roe).

“On this coast we again meet with wooden canoes, although the balsa, or tule raft, is also in use” (Bancroft).

“The tule flat between the water front and Sutter’s Fort had become a bustling city” (Houghton).

“I built a little hut of tule, and he lay on the ground till he died” (Jackson).

What stood out above all else were her flirty, soft dresses in tulle and chiffon in pastel colors which, for the most part, were embroidered with sequins and antique beading and iridescent insets.

If in doubt about the design’s stability, sandwich a layer of sheer fabric, such as organdy, organza, or tulle, with the water-soluble stabilizer prior to stitching.

Use nude-color tulle or silk organza for interfacing.

She fingered fine muslins and intricate laces, heavy crimson silks, and tulle.

Satin, organza, chiffon, georgette, tulle, lace, brocades, and crepe are all classic fabrics for bridesmaid dresses.

Lime-colored tulle is a great neutral to use in protecting torn sections of antique quilts.

Derivatives:
Noun: toolbar, toolbox, tooler, tooling, toolkit, toolmaker, toolmaking, toolpusher, toolset, toolshed, tooltip
History of the Word:
Old English tōl, from a Germanic base meaning prepare. The verb dates from the early 19th century. 1830–40, Americanism, via Mexican Spanish from the Nahuatl tōlin or tullin. Early 19th century, from Tulle, a town in SW France, where it was first made.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Tool vs Tule vs Tulle

Apple Dictionary.com

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Library of Alexandria, 2009. Originally published 1874. <https://amzn.to/3fPeseQ>.

Dictionary.com: tool, tule, tulle

Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner. The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate. 2012. EBook. Originally published 1911. <https://amzn.to/3MdTVNe>.

Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona. Digireads.com, 2004. Originally published 1884. Ebook. <https://amzn.to/3ErsQ7t>.

Oxford Dictionaries: tool, tule

Roe, Frances M.A. Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife, 1871–1888. 2012. Originally published 1909. EBook. <https://amzn.to/3T7AGXK>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Tulle Rolls Dim by KAI1119 was cropped and rotated and is under the CC0 license, via Pixabay. Peruvian Fishing Boats by Roy & Danielle is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons and has been cropped down to one fishing boat, which was rotated 90-degrees. The Navaja Folding Knife, circa 1790, is Dana Williams‘ own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. Its background was removed and the knife rotated 180-degrees.

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