Idiom of the Week—“Pipe Down”

This week’s idiom comes at the suggestion of Howard Masters.  When we tell someone to “pipe down”, it is generally a less-than-respectful way of telling them to be quiet.  For instance, “As he was attempting to confirm his airline reservations on a cell phone with bad reception, Mr. Harris abruptly turned around and told the kids in the back seat to pipe down so he could hear.”  

Turns out this is one of many idioms that has a nautical origin.  On sailing ships signals were given to the crew by sounding the boatswain's (bo'sun's) pipe, a small whistle-like device used by the bosun, or the petty officer in charge of the deck. One such signal was 'piping down the hammocks' which was the signal for the crew to go below decks and retire for the night. When an officer wanted a sailor to be dismissed below he would have him 'piped down'. This usage is recorded in Royal Navy workbooks from the 18th century; for example, Gillespie's Advice to Commanders & Officers, 1798:  "At four o'clock, P.M. the hammocks should regularly be piped down."

Use of the phrase could well have derived from the fact that, if there was a disturbance onboard ship, officers could quell it by sending the crew below decks, i.e. by piping them down.  Since the deck would become suddenly quiet when the crew retired, "pipe down" came to be used as nautical slang for "be quiet" or "shut up," and by the end of the 19th century it had percolated out into its modern non-seafaring usage.  This transition from being literally “piped down” to being told to “pipe dow”n is supported by records of ship's crew's being told to 'pipe down' rather than signaled to by the use of an actual pipe; for example, this report from The Gettysburg Star And Banner, April 1850:

'I don't care what happens to me now!' wept Peter, going among the crew, with blood-shot eyes, as he put on his shirt. 'I have been flogged once, and they may do it again, if they will. 'Let them look out for me now'. 'Pipe down!' cried the Captain, and the crew slowly dispersed.

This idiom also seems to be the origin the slight variant, “pipe up”, meaning ‘to say what is on your mind’.  For instance, “Just when it appeared that the motion would carry without any objections, an unexpected voice piped up from the back of the room.”  There are no nautical origins to “pipe up” (that is, crews were not “piped up” from below deck), so it appears that as the phrase “pipe down” found its way into everyday usage, it seemed only logical that “pipe up” should come to mean just the  opposite