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knitandpurl commented on the word whisticaster
http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/whisticaster-tf/ says:
"A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
whisticaster
. A further var. of prec"
- which I think must refer to the previous term in the dictionary, which is "whister-clister." Of this, http://www.bookrags.com/tandf/whister-clister-tf/ says:
"whister-clister
, -snefet, -snivet. A cuff on the ear or the side of the head: resp. late C.18–mid-19 (Grose, 1st ed.), then dial.; C.16 (Udall); C.16 (Palsgrave: OED). Perhaps a reduplication of whister, that which ‘whists’ or puts to silence; even so, -clister may pun clyster, an enema, while -snefet, -snivet may be cognate with the vv.
snite snivel. Perhaps orig. dial., as the Palsgrave locus indicates; certainly dial. are the variants whisterpoop (C.17–20), whistersniff (C.19–20), and whister-twister—which last (C.18–19) is certainly a punning reduplication. See also wisty-castor."
August 6, 2011
knitandpurl commented on the word whisticaster
"For answer she went and kissed him.
"Well, that's better than a whisticaster in the rattlers," he said.
"A what?"
"A smack in the gob. Good idea, then, is it?"
The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman, p 206 of the Knopf paperback edition
August 6, 2011