Is a Whistle Really all That Clean?

You’re listening to a special edition of A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

Today we’re celebrating the things we learn from kids and their curiosity about language.

Many times kids often have a perfectly logical guess about the origin of a word or phrase, even if it’s not the right one.

Hi, I’m Harry Evans from Charlotte, Vermont.

Hi, Harry.

Hi.

So the other day I was cleaning my room and my dad said I want it as clean as a whistle. I thought about that phrase a little bit. I was like, wouldn’t a whistle be sort of like gross almost from like people blowing into it, like all the spit building up in it?

Yeah, like the spit from a trombone, right?

Yeah.

I was just curious about the origin of it.

So, Harry, you’re in Charlotte, Vermont, which we talked about on the show, and we know it’s pronounced that way. And you’re how old?

I’m 14.

So that puts you in high school?

Eighth grade.

Eighth grade, almost. I graduate tomorrow.

Graduate tomorrow?

Well, congratulations. That’s a big deal.

Thank you.

And do you keep your room as clean as a whistle?

No, not at all.

What do you get from Dad if you do make it clean as a whistle?

Probably video games.

Okay, that’s not bad. So you’re like, this is gross, it’s covered in spit, why would I want my room like that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Excellent question.

Harry, the answer is that the kind of whistle that we’re talking about in this phrase isn’t the kind of physical whistle that you might buy in a store, like a slide whistle or the kind of whistle that your PE teacher might wear around his neck. It’s the sound of the whistle itself. You know, when you whistle and it’s just so clear and pure?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I guess that sort of makes sense.

Yeah.

It’s that kind of whistle.

And the clean is a little bit different, too. It’s not so much the idea of something that’s not dirty. But you know how sometimes you use the word clean to mean completely, like cut clean through a piece of wood or something like that?

Yeah.

So it’s a little bit different sense for both of those words. But clean as a whistle is just as pure as the whistle of a bird. So the sharp sound that you make rather than the little thing that you blow into.

Yeah, and when it first shows up in the 19th century in English, it’s used interchangeably with clear as a whistle. Sometimes you say clear as a whistle rather than clean as a whistle.

Cool, that’s interesting.

Yeah, we think so too.

Harry, thanks for your call. We really appreciate it. Congratulations on finishing eighth grade.

Thank you.

All right. Take care.

Bye.

Bye, Harry.

Perfectly reasonable to wonder why we’d say clean as a whistle when a whistle is going to collect some spit and gunk, right?

Perfectly reasonable.