Home » Segments » Is a Whistle Really all That Clean?

Is a Whistle Really all That Clean?

September 6, 2021

Fourteen-year-old Harry from Charlotte, Vermont, asks why we say something is clean as a whistle. Clean as a whistle refers not to a physical whistle, but to the purity of the sibilant sound. This is part of a complete episode.

More from this show

Segments

Catillate, Agelastic, and Latibulate

April 7, 2024

Inkhorn terms are bloated, fancy, show-off words formed by cramming Latin and Greek roots into English. The name references little bottles made from animal horn that 14th-century English scribes used to carry their ink. Lexicographer Henry...

Play episode

Segments

All Out Are In Free!

April 7, 2024

Kylie Ryan, an elementary-school teacher in Seattle, Washington, remembers that when she played hide-and-seek as a child, the call for everyone to come in was alle alle oxen free. Are there other versions? Yes, and because these sayings were not...