В США появился сленговый термин «whistlebit» для обозначения опоздания с уходом с работы

Justin from Fort Worth, Texas, heard a coworker warn against getting whistlebit, or “still being at work when the quitting whistle blows.” (Remember Fred Flintstone in the quarry?) The term whistlebit follows the pattern of snakebit, a slang term in the Southern United States applied to someone who’s unlucky, as if bitten by a snake. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Whistlebit, Modeled on Snakebit, Means Still at Work When the Quitting Whistle Blows” Welcome to A Way with Words. Oh, hi. This is Justin calling from Fort Worth, Texas. How are you? All right. Well what’s on your mind? Well I was working one day with my buddy and we were kind of running a little late and he says, Oh, Justin, we gotta hurry up. We don’t get wanna get whistle bit. And you know, I can understand from the context you didn’t want to work late, but I never heard that before. So I look it up in the dictionary and that’s what it says, you know, whistle bit is to work after quitting time. But I wanted to know why whistle bit? You know what does that mean? And when I Google around, all I can find is that it’s a bit that goes in the horse of a mouth and it’s got little holes in the piece that goes in the mouth that looks like a tin whistle. Keeps them from sucking in air and they can’t burp, and that’s a problem because but I couldn’t figure out why you would say whistle bit. You know, are we gonna end up with bits in our mouths if we want late after five? No, that’s a red herring. It’s got nothing to do with horses or bits and mouths at all. Actually has to do with another bit of southern slang. Have you ever heard somebody unlucky being said to be snake bit? Boy, that boy’s just snake bit. He can’t he can’t win for losing. Right, right, right, yeah. Yeah, so this whistle bit, W H I S T L E one word, and then the second word bit B I T is like being snake bit except by the quitting whistle at your job or the quitting siren or the quitting alarm or whatever. And so the idea here is that you’re gonna get unlucky enough to have that that shift signal go off while you still need to be employed or while you still are at you at your task. I see. Okay, okay. So so the bit here isn’t what goes in a horse’s mouth. To be to be bitten, yeah. To be like injured or hurt. Yeah, that’s right, exactly. Well not literally, but it means to be right right to be figuratively stung or p figuratively bit. Mm- Yeah. Mm. You got bit by the whistle. And it’s particularly common in and blue collar jobs, like I find it in HVAC journals or STEAM and engineering journals and newspapers. And we got a really nice glossary or dictionary a few years ago by a a fellow named Ray Journey, his class that he took, a technical course that he took, they put this construction dictionary together and they have the term in there and and they define it as still at work in the field when the whistle blows rather than at the gang box with tools secured and most importantly, ready to go home. That’s right. You gotta have your gear put up, ready to go. So so your whistle bit, if you still got all your tools out when it’s time to go home. That’s right. That’s right. Oh, that’s pretty good. Oh man. Okay, I had the wrong so it’s like Fred Swinstone. He’s working in the quarry and the whistle goes off. He habitab his way out of there. Yep. Oh okay. Well that’s good. I’ll have to tell my buddy, he’ll really like that. But it you say it’s mostly blue collar though. Yeah, it is. Yeah, but again the connection to snake bit, which is the southern slang which means unlucky, unfortunate, always having something you didn’t expect happen to you when you need things to go well. You got snake bit. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve had those days too. We get snake bit sometimes too. Yeah, yeah. The y you order a part, it arrives, it doesn’t fit, you just got snake bit. Yeah, yeah. Huh, things just aren’t going your way some days. Yeah. And then you end up getting whistle bit. That’s how that works. That’s right. That’s it. Justin. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. Be safe out there. I really enjoyed this. All right. Take care. All right. Thanks, Justin. All right. Y’all too. Mm- Bye-bye. Toll free in the US and Canada, 877-92 two9 nine nine six seven three.