twitterrati plus request

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Whistle-blower" comes decades later than "blow the whistle on" (go figure)
which, as far as anyone has ever known, alludes to a policeman's whistle.

This early ex., however, suggests otherwise. The (earlier) meaning here is
clearly to "oppose successfully; thwart decisively" rather than to "expose":

1916 George Ade in _Cosmopolitan_ (June) 42: Claude...had to blow the
Whistle on Friend Wife, who was getting ready to send Daughter to Europe
and put Son in Yale.

JL

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: twitterrati plus request
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I find the Wodehouse usage unclear, which also means I can't even try to
> refute it.
>
> Billboard has a clear 1946 usage:
>
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=GxoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT71&dq=%22blow+the+whistle+on%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wvdOUdTRBOLI0wGzrYDABw&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBw
>
> "A three-card monte dealer once told me never to *blow the whistle on*
> another
> man's grift."
>
> To me, this feels more like a cop's whistle than a ref's.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 10:01 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
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> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      twitterrati plus request
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > An interesting variation--wonder if double-r is reasonable.
> >
> > http://goo.gl/Bw1FL
> > > That felt nothing like Thursday, when Harvard pulled off an upset over
> > > a physically imposing New Mexico team -- a stunner that riled up the
> > > Harvard twitterrati and sparked dreams of nets somehow being cut down
> > > with a slide rule.
> >
> > Goes in the file with "glitterati" and other assorted variations.
> >
> > Completely OT, I wanted to know if anyone has posted/noted anything of
> > significance on 1) medibles and 2) antedating of "whisleblower" (OED
> > 1970; MWOLD 1970; note that MW and AHD both have a very narrow
> > definition, as do most other online dictionaries, with AHD listing only
> > the one-word form and MW only the dashed form)
> >
> > Wikipedia makes some claims that may not stand up under scrutiny:
> >
> > > The term whistle-blower comes from the whistle a referee uses to
> > > indicate an illegal or foul play.[4][5] US civic activist Ralph Nader
> > > coined the phrase in the early 1970s to avoid the negative
> > > connotations found in other words such as "informers" and
> "snitches".[6]
> >
> > Wodehouse is repeatedly cited as the earliest incarnation for the
> > corresponding verb, so crediting Nader is questionable at best.
> > Etymonline is the source for associating the term with sports
> > (particularly "referee"), but I have reason to believe there is more to
> > it. I'll comment on it later unless someone's already covered this
> > extensively.
> >
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> >
>
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