Talk:piping hot

appreciation

I do not know if anyone will read this anytime soon. I am new to the mighty Wikimedia empire. I enjoyed editing the etymology for "piping hot" just now. I did it because I looked up "piping hot" in the first place, because I am in my fifties, and I never stopped to ask myself, until recently, how a thing being hot would make it piping. Something for a stand-up comic to ask. But, I may never be a stand-up comic, because I like to know these things, rather than ask an audience, and then they chuckle. And we all stand and sit, chuckling, and ignorant about the matter at hand. Anyway, the etymology got me started. But it just said it was a reference to the sound of sizzling food, similar to pipes. In modern times, we have lots of plumbing pipes. Very little in the way of musical instruments called pipes. So, after following the link to "pipe," I finally figured it out. So, I simply added the word "musical" before "pipes," and the rest is history. Or it may someday be, if anyone decades from now reads all this, and is awestruck by the dedication of the early editors of the mighty Wikipedia and Wiktionary. Or, if they shake their heads and wonder what kind of absolute geek would be worried about the idiom, "piping hot." The answer is, it was just annoying me, so I thought I would go to Wiktionary, and either get to the bottom of it, or edit to the bottom of it. — special:contribs/big jac~enwiktionary 05:07, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Hello person who wrote this, I'd like to thank you very much for your dedication to the cause, I found and read your piece here and it was very interesting, as I myself are fascinated by the origins of this phrase as well. — special:contribs/123.2.144.14 13:07, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Ah, yes. Before deciding to "wiki" the idiom "piping hot", I never though I could enjoy something labeled as "piping hot". I had always assumed this was a distinctly American practice developed in the West during the 19th century. As it turns out, I am wrong. And, that is much better. — special:contribs/24.34.115.0 23:46, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Two observations: "Piping" was also used to refer to singing voice, especially treble "piping boys". In (British) Northumbrian dialect drop scones (sort of small thick pancake) are still referred to as "singing hinnies" (hinny being dialect for sweetheart, honey, sweet thing) — special:contribs/92.20.33.214 13:32, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah, like pipe up or pipes meaning 'voice'. Arlo Barnes (talk) 08:56, 2 March 2024 (UTC)