set off vs start out

set off

verb
  • To begin; to cause; to initiate. 

  • To put into an angry mood; to start (a person) ranting or sulking, etc. 

  • To leave; to begin a journey or trip. 

  • To enhance by emphasizing differences. 

  • To offset, to compensate for: to reduce the effect of, by having a contrary effect. 

  • To deface or soil the next sheet; said of the ink on a freshly printed sheet, when another sheet comes in contact with it before it has had time to dry. 

  • To cause to explode, let off. 

start out

verb
  • To begin. 

  • To emerge suddenly; to jump out. 

  • To be or become conspicuous; to stand out. 

How often have the words set off and start out occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )