pikipikin.
/ˈpɪkɪˌpɪki/, /ˈpiːkɪˌpiːki/, U.S. /ˈpɪkiˌpɪki/, /ˈpikiˌpiki/ More fully pikipiki whistle. Among the Mbuti of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a type of whistle.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > wind instrument > pipe > [noun] > whistle > other whistles
penny whistle1730
sap-whistle1740
Galton's whistle1904
Swanee whistle1926
pikipiki1933
1933 G. Griffin tr. P. Schebesta Among Congo Pygmies iii. 78 The pikipiki is..a kind of whistle, about the thickness of a man's finger, and is cut out of a round piece of wood. In both ends holes are..burned, with a red-hot spike. It can then be used as a whistle like a hollow key.
1936 G. Griffin tr. P. Schebesta My Pygmy & Negro Hosts vi. 114 It seems that all the negro tribes believe in the supernatural powers of the ‘pikipiki whistle’.
1958 Listener 2 Oct. 508/1 The production of shrill notes from their whistles called pikipikis.
1960 New Scientist 6 Oct. 903/1 The songs which they sing nightly to the accompaniment of pikipiki whistles.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1933