Pipe down, meaning “shush,” comes from the days when a ship’s bosun (or bo’s’n or bos’n, also known as a boatswain), would actually blow a whistle to tell the rest of the crew that the wind had shifted or a certain action needed to take place. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Pipe Down”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hey, Martha, this is Steve, a call from Louisville, Kentucky.
From Louisville, Miles Stomping Ground. How you doing, Steve?
Not too bad. I was calling about a phrase that I’ve modified, and thanks to your all show, I now have to find the origin to it.
But I always use the word pipe up and pipe down. Pipe down is the one I kind of grew up with. I used pipe up as a, when I’m talking to my nine-year-old on a baseball field, rather than man up or quit being a baby, I used pipe up.
And my knee-jerk reaction was, it was very elementary, but it was Mario Brothers. And I turned that around. I said, no, that can’t be right. I thought more about it. And I’m thinking it’s some kind of work whistle or a bell, like a lunch bell or something of that nature.
Your instincts are good. You’re getting close. Very good. Yes, Steve. That’s pretty much it. Only think nautical. Not naughty, nautical. Nautical, not naughty. It comes from the bosun’s whistle aboard a ship. You’ve probably seen this on Star Trek, where when the captain comes to the bridge, there’s a whistle sound.
Well, this comes from the nautical tradition, where there’s always a signal when certain things happen, when shifts change, or when the captain wants a certain thing done, or when it’s time for people to move to new duties, and when it’s time to end the day or the primary responsibilities of the day, they have the pipe down. The bosun blows the pipe down whistle.
And did that just evolve to where we use it to tell kids there’s time for bed? I mean, I guess the phrase pipe down, it had to be a sound. So I guess that’s just kind of how it evolved. That’s pretty cool.
Yeah. Well, think about, you know, we’re not very much a nautical world at this point. I mean, there’s tons of ships at sea, but it’s not core to how we get around. But there was a time in the world where you probably would have been much more familiar with ships. And as a boy, you read a lot of seafaring, rip-roaring tales and maybe looked up to sea captains and people who went to foreign countries aboard ships. And this kind of narrative of the pipe and the customs aboard the ships was probably a lot more common. That’s my guess.
That’s excellent. I’m very glad that you were able to answer my question there. Thanks guys.
Yeah, take care, appreciate it Steve. Thanks for calling Steve. Bye bye.
