Fact of Today

[Binky Bainbridge]

Must question the veracity of this fact, for one thing pubs don't serve beer or indeed any drink in ceramic cups.

Your Fact for the day Fact Number : 1960

Many years ago in England pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill they used the whistle to get some service. Wet your whistle is the phrase inspired by this practice.

I believe this to be the true history of the phrase:

Whet your appetite

Meaning
To have your interest in something, especially food, stimulated.
Origin
This phrase is often confused with 'wet your whistle'. Uncertainty about the spelling of the first word, either as whet or wet, leads to both phrases being wrongly spelled too. In fact there's no connection between the two terms, which are properly spelled as 'whet your appetite' and 'wet your whistle'. The allusion in the former is to the sharpening of tools on a whetstone (grindstone) and to whet means just to sharpen. So, 'whetting our appetite' is 'sharpening our appetite'.
'Wet your whistle' predates 'whet your appetite' by some centuries, and was first recorded in the 1386 Towneley Mysteries:

"Had She oones Wett Hyr Whystyll She couth Syng full clere Hyr pater noster."

Whistle here means throat or voice and the phrase just means 'take a drink'.
You may see it put about that 'wet your whistle' derives from the practice of using a whistle in the taverns of Olde Englande to summon the landlord with more drinks. This is complete tosh. The Internet makes it easy to circulate information; unfortunately it isn't discriminating and stories like that tend to gain a foothold quite quickly.

[meadmice]

Actually, I know someone who has a few very old beer steins with the whistle on the rim, and even some with a mustache barrier to keep the froth off your face. I think a couple of them might be metal, been a long time since I've seen them, but I know he's got several ceramic ones.

[K C Muffin]

Interesting that the English don't serve beer or any other drink in ceraminc cups/steins. Hubby has quite a collection of steins from Germany from his tour over there. When I went there with step-daughter, we brought some back as gifts. They were all ceramic. I wouldn't turn down a beer in a ceramic glass/stein. I think that's odd that the English would!

[Binky Bainbridge]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

Interesting that the English don't serve beer or any other drink in ceraminc cups/steins. Hubby has quite a collection of steins from Germany from his tour over there. When I went there with step-daughter, we brought some back as gifts. They were all ceramic. I wouldn't turn down a beer in a ceramic glass/stein. I think that's odd that the English would!

The Germans serve their beer in steins as you say, some glass, some ceramic. A few years ago I went to the October Munich Beer Festival and it amazed me how the German serving girls carried about 4 steins in each hand - they're seriously heavy! Mind you they're buxom girls!!
In England we serve beer by the pint in measured glasses, straight glasses or jugs with handles - our beer is different to the German beer, although I have to say I like both!