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Something that 'whets your appetite' will make you hungry. Something that 'wets your whistle' is a drink. They are often confused but you can read on to learn more.
Jun 29, 2017 · The noun whistle has long been jocular for the mouth or the throat as used in speaking or singing. The phrase to wet one’s whistle, meaning to take a drink, is found as early as the late 14th century in The Reeve’s Tale, by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1340-1400):
The confusion between whet and wet has two sources. First, the expression wet your whistle, meaning "have a drink" or "quench your thirst," can cause people to swap the verbs whet and wet. Second, when something whets your appetite, it makes your mouth water — and water (or saliva) is wet.
May 2, 2023 · What does Wet your Whistle mean? Wet your Whistle is a popular idiomatic expression, which means “to drink an alcoholic beverage.” Although a popular phrase, there are several debates concerning its origin and proper meaning, as some people use it as “Whet your Whistle”, referring to another idiomatic expression, “Whet your appetite.”
‘Wet your whistle’ pre-dates ‘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’.
If you wet your whistle, you have a drink, especially an alcoholic drink. There's a mouth-watering menu and an excellent selection of beers to wet your whistle. Note: `Whistle' is an old slang word for mouth or throat.
The reverse error—using whet in place of wet—is rare, but it is surprisingly common in the idiom wet [one’s] whistle, which means to take a drink. Whistle here is a metonym for mouth , so the phrase literally means wet [one’s] mouth , and it’s easy to see how this came to mean what it does.
