Swaneen.
/ˈswɒni/, U.S. /ˈswɑni/ 1. Swanee whistle n. (also Swanee flute) a small woodwind instrument with a slide-plunger to vary the pitch, chiefly used as a toy.
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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
1926 S. T. Warner Lolly Willowes ii. 114 She bought a Swanee flute.
1930 R. Paget Human Speech 239 Various forms of mute for converting the whistle sound of a Swannee Whistle into a breathed sound.
1961 A. C. Baines Musical Instruments through Ages ix. 235 The Swanee whistle, scored for by Ravel in Les Enfants et les sortilèges, is also made by Indian children as a bamboo bird-pipe.
1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio x. 172 An object (or person) being thrown high into the air might be indicated by the use of a glide up and down on a swannee whistle (this is a whistle which has a slide piston to govern the pitch).
1978 Times 15 July 2/4 (caption) Pupils..playing a Swanee whistle..and a Melodica, a wind keyboard.
1983 Daily Tel. 23 June 18/4 The piece, to be recited by the composer himself, is performed on toy clarinets, saxophones, rattles, swanee whistles, plastic hosepipes and paper-bags.
2. to go down the Swanee = to go down the drain at drain n. 1e; to become ruined or bankrupt. Cf. river n.1 Phrases 5d. slang.
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society > trade and finance > management of money > insolvency > ruined or bankrupt [phrase] > become bankrupt
to go down the Swanee1977
1977 Observer 21 Aug. 1/3 A senior Leyland convener..called on the Government to give Leyland ‘latitude’ in settling its pay problems. Without that, he said, the company ‘would go down the Swanee’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1926