Chrysti The Wordsmith: Clean as a Whistle

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. If it's clean as a whistle it's tidy neat and pure. But what exactly is the whistle doing in this simile. Here is one more familiar English expression whose origin has been forgotten. Today I will look at several suggestions that have stepped in to fill the etymological void. The whistle featured in this cliché may be one of old fashioned hand hewn wood often Willow. Perhaps clean as a whistle refers to the smooth clean surface of a willow stick after the bark has been removed to make a whistle. Another account has the original phrase clean as a whistle. W H I T T L E E. Again evoking the smooth texture of freshly skinned wood. Other sources claim that whistles both metal and wood must literally be clean and dry on the inside to produce their characteristic sound. Supporting this origin is a citation from 1842 which reads. By the time we reach the mansion we are dry as a whistle. Most likely though the clean

in this expression does not refer to the devices sanitary condition or degree of dryness but is rather a synonym of clear or sharp. With this in mind. Clean as a whistle would mean pure or clear as the sound of a whistle. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the expression showed up in print for the first time in eight hundred twenty eight. I'm Christi the wordsmith. Good day verb of yours. CHRISTIE The wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.