whistle-blower

See also: Whistleblower and whistleblower

English

Alternative forms

• whistleblower, whistle blower

Etymology

whistle +‎ blower, referring to a police officer blowing their whistle on observing a violation of the law.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

whistle-blower (plural whistle-blowers)

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

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:informant

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

   • 2012, Frederick D. Lipman, Whistleblowers, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, →ISBN, page 60:

     Usually the whistleblower is not fired outright. The organization's goal is to disconnect the act of whistleblowing from the act of retaliation, which is why so much legislation to protect whistleblowers is practically irrelevant. The usual practice is to demoralize and humiliate the whistleblower, putting him or her under so much psychological stress that it becomes difficult to do a good job.

   • 2020 September 14, Ben Smith, “The Intercept Promised to Reveal Everything”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The huge breach of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program in June 2013 was one of the proudest moments in modern journalism, and one of the purest: A brave and disgusted whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, revealed the government’s extensive surveillance of American and foreign citizens.

Related terms

• whistleblowing

Translations

one who reports a problem or violation to the authorities

• Armenian: ազդարար (hy) (azdarar)
• Bashkir: ошаҡсы (oşaqsı)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 告密者 (zh) (gàomìzhě), 舉報人／举报人 (jǔbàorén), 告發者／告发者 (gàofāzhě), 檢舉者／检举者 (jiǎnjǔzhě)

• Czech: informátor m
• Danish: whistleblower c
• Dutch: klokkenluider (nl) m
• Finnish: ilmiantaja (fi)
• French: lanceur d’alerte (fr) m, lanceuse d’alerte (fr) f, dénonciateur (fr) m, dénonciatrice (fr) f
• Galician: malsín m, chileta m, lengoreteiro m
• Georgian: ინფორმატორი (inpormaṭori), დამსმენი (damsmeni), მომხსენებელი (momxsenebeli)
• German: Whistleblower (de) m, Hinweisgeber (de) m, Hinweisgeberin (de) f, Enthüller m, Skandalaufdecker m
• Hungarian: informátor (hu)
• Icelandic: uppljóstrari m
• Indonesian: pengungkap aib
• Irish: sceithire m
• Italian: informatore (it) m
• Japanese: 内部告発者 (ないぶこくはつしゃ, naibukokuhatsusha)
• Korean: 내부고발자 (naebugobalja)
• Macedonian: свиркач m (svirkač)
• Norwegian: fløyteblåser m, varsler (no) m
• Polish: sygnalista (pl) m
• Portuguese: delator (pt)
• Russian: осведоми́тель (ru) m (osvedomítelʹ), осведоми́тельница (ru) f (osvedomítelʹnica), информа́тор (ru) m (informátor), (disparaging) доно́счик (ru) m (donósčik), доно́счица (ru) f (donósčica)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: звиждач m

  Roman: zviždač (sh) m

• Spanish: revelador de secretos, delator (es) en su trabajo, alertador m, denunciante m or f
• Swedish: visselblåsare (sv) c
• Turkish: muhbir (tr)
• Ukrainian: інформа́тор m (informátor), інформа́торка f (informátorka)
• Vietnamese: người thổi còi, người tố cáo, người tố giác

See also

• blow the whistle
• tattletale

Further reading

• whistleblower on Wikipedia.Wikipedia