whistle-blower

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Probably an allusion to a police officer blowing his or her whistle on observing a violation of the law.

Noun

whistle-blower (plural whistle-blowers)

1. (idiomatic) One who reports a problem or violation to the authorities; especially, an employee or former employee who reports a violation by an employer.

   We owe it to a small group of brave whistle-blowers that we know about the infractions at all.

Synonyms

• Wikisaurus:informant

Translations

one who reports a problem or violation to the authorities

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 告密者 (cmn) (gàomìzhě), 舉報人 (cmn), 举报人 (cmn) (jǔbàorén)

• Czech: informátor (cs) m
• Dutch: klokkenluider (nl) m
• Finnish: ilmiantaja (fi)
• French: lanceur d'alerte (fr) m, dénonciateur (fr) m
• German: Hinweisgeber (de) m, Hinweisgeberin (de) f, Whistleblower (de) m
• Hungarian: informátor (hu)
• Japanese: 内部告発者 (ja) (ないぶこくはつしゃ, naibukokuhatsusha)

• Norwegian: fløyteblåser (no) m, varsler (no) m
• Portuguese: delator (pt)
• Russian: осведомитель (ru) (osvedomítel') m, осведомительница (ru) (osvedomítel'nica) f, информатор (ru) (informátor) m, (disparaging) доносчик (ru) (donósčik) m, доносчица (ru) (donósčica) f
• Serbo-Croatian: zviždač (sh) m
• Spanish: revelador de secretos (es), delator (es) en su trabajo, alertador (es) m
• Swedish: visselblåsare (sv) c

Related terms

• whistleblowing

See also

• blow the whistle
• tattletale