whistling in the wind

[Jonathan]

I was asked about the meaning of "whistling in the wind" in the
following sentence and my reply was that "if you whistle in the wind,
no one is able to hear it. so you are basically making a futile
attempt". Is my interpretation correct? I was told later by somebody
that a native speaker of English told him that "whistling in the wind"
means "to console or encourage (people in trouble)". I don't think
such interpretation is correct. What do you think?

The original sentence is: The official forecasts from Beijing that
growth will hit 8% this year may turn out to be propagandist whistling
in the wind, but the confidence is there. The World Bank reckons that
6.5% is more likely. Even that would be a sharp contrast to the
performance of the west and Japan.

[TonyCooper]

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 23:29:23 -0700 (PDT), Jonathan <kev...@21cn.net>
wrote:

>I was asked about the meaning of "whistling in the wind" in the
>following sentence and my reply was that "if you whistle in the wind,
>no one is able to hear it. so you are basically making a futile
>attempt". Is my interpretation correct? I was told later by somebody
>that a native speaker of English told him that "whistling in the wind"
>means "to console or encourage (people in trouble)". I don't think
>such interpretation is correct. What do you think?

I think you are right and your "somebody" is wrong. "Whistling in
the wind" is an expression that is used to indicate doing something
that is a brave attempt, but a futile endeavor.

[David Catterall]

Jonathan wrote:

> I was told later by somebody
> that a native speaker of English told him that "whistling in the wind"
> means "to console or encourage (people in trouble)".

He was thinking of "whistling in the dark", I would guess.
Best wishes,
>David

[Jonathan]

Thank you all!

[Jonathan]

I found the entry of "whistle in the wind" in a book called [i]
Glossary of Marine Insurance and Shipping Terms, 2001 Edition[/i]. And
under this entry it reads: whistle in the wind now means talking to
keep up one's courage. As it was contrary to my understanding of this
expression, I wrote a letter to the editor and here's his reply:

The most common meaning of whistling in the wind is to keep up one's
courage, but as that meaning can also be taken as a vain attempt to
keep the courage, you find the second meaning, that of the futile
attempt. Like other idiomatic expressions, it has two potential
meanings, which are suggested from the context in which they are used.

The editor is also, i guess, the owner of an American company who
publishes this glossary. His name is Bill Arnold, which I assume is a
native speaker of English. His website is http://www.arnoldoffice.com/glossary.pdf.

Does this person's explanation make sense to you as a native speaker
of English? Is this expression common at all? coz I cant find it in
any dictionary except this glossary.

Thanks