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An offstage whistle audible to the audience in the middle of a performance might also be considered bad luck. Transcendental whistling ( chángxiào 長嘯) was an ancient Chinese Daoist technique of resounding breath yoga, and skillful whistlers supposedly could summon supernatural beings, wild animals, and weather phenomena.
A party whistle A metal pea whistle. A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a large multi-piped church organ.
According to Adam Edwards of Daily Express, the wolf whistle originates from the navy General Call made with a boatswain's pipe. The General Call is made on a ship to get the attention of all hands for an announcement. Sailors in harbour would whistle the General Call upon seeing an attractive woman to draw fellow sailors' attention to her.
The Online Etymology Dictionary or Etymonline, sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the origins of English words, written and compiled by Douglas R. Harper. [1]
The song added a new term to the American lexicon: "Whistling 'Dixie'" is a slang expression meaning "[engaging] in unrealistically rosy fantasizing." [98] For example, "Don't just sit there whistling 'Dixie'!" is a reprimand against inaction, and "You ain't just whistling 'Dixie'!" indicates that the addressee is serious about the matter at hand.
The Chinese language has two common words meaning "to whistle": xiào 嘯 or 啸 "whistle; howl; roar; wail" and shào 哨 "warble; chirp; whistle; sentry". Word usage of xiào 嘯 (first occurring in the c. 10th century BCE Shijing, below) is historically older than shào 哨 (first in the c. 2nd century BCE Liji describing a pitch-pot's "wry mouth"). [1]
In March, a mother was horrified to find a pedophile symbol on a toy she bought for her daughter. Although the symbol was not intentionally placed on the toy by the company who manufactured the ...
An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology. [1] Etymological dictionaries are the product of research in historical linguistics. For many words in any ...