I can’t help being a little nasty these days.
I was over my dad’s house and his wife was showing me a little photo album, when we reached a lovely photo of her grandchild playing a recorder. “And this is Gabriella playing a flute”, says Jana.
“That’s a recorder.” I’m a little jealous . . . I wouldn’t mind being 11 again and playing an instument.
“She’s playing a flute.”
“A recorder”[/i]."
OK, who really cares about a little detail like that? Jana’s Czech and while she speak english well, she probably wouldn’t call a recorder a recorder, since Gabby plays the flute as well. But is there any excuse for calling anything that clearly isn’t a recorder a recorder? And why don’t people mistakenly call recorders “whistles”? I’ve never played a recorder in my life, but somehow the word has been planted in the brains of every person living. It’s not the first time such a mistake has been made.
A conspiracy? I think so.
Other languages might not make the same distinctions as english does. In german, both are flutes, told apart by different prefixes (“Querfloete” and “Blockfloete”). Maybe czech is similar.
I think you have to pick what’s important enough to get riled up over. If the difference between a flute, a recorder, and a whistle is one of the most important things in your life, then it’s worth getting worked up over. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth more than a polite correction.
A year ago, I was telling a coworker about my whistle collection, and how people get whistles and recorders mixed up, and how I played the whistle. Not a week later, he was over at my house and marvelled at my recorder collection. I smiled and thanked him, knowing that the distinction just wasn’t that important to him. And it’s not important enough to me that he know a whistle from a recorder to correct him about it.
Would you know a lute from an oud or a kalimba from a mbira or a kaval from a duduk? To many people, music just isn’t a central part of their lives, and Irish/British Isles folk music isn’t even on the radar screen.
Well, just to confuse the issue further, before the time of Bach, if a composer wrote “flute” he meant recorder; if he wanted a side-blown flute he’d specify “traverso.”
Whistle and recorder and even flute are pretty similar to each other, at least in the eyes of a non-player. I wouldn’t sweat it too much if someone confuses them.
–James
Heck, in the larger sense they’re all flutes.
It’s like the difference between a shawm and an oboe, or a clarinet and a saxophone - huge to those directly involved, small-to-vanishing for anyone else.
My biggest gripe is that as an amateur astronomer people keep thinking I’m an *astrologer". Especially galling because if the the @#%#$@ fortune tellers hadn’t confused the isse “astrology” probably should be the correct name for the science, just as the correct name for earth science is “geology” 
A recorder is a fipple flute. So a recorder is a flute.
All recorders are flutes, but (thankfully) not
all flutes are recorders. The person who calls
a recorder a flute is right, though accidentally;
the person who calls a whistle a recorder
is wrong–a whistle is another species of
fipple flute. A bit like calling a chimp
a gorilla.
As to what to do when people get
it wrong–well, boiling in oil is to good
for 'em, I say. Remember they are
almost certainly agents of the
recorder syndicate, which thrives
on sowing confusion and is nearly
singlehandedly responsible for the
impending collapse of Western civilization.
(If not paid agents, then fellow
travelers or useful idiots. Hardly
matters.)
Wow, an amateur astronomer! Cool! So, what’s your sign?
SMILE when you say that, pardner! 
I think you have to pick what’s important enough to get riled up over.
I need to learn to do that.
Well, better an amateur than a professional anyhow.
I’m an amateur Pisces. My brother in law
is a professional astrologer, by the way.
One gets the impression it’s a waste
of intellectual ability. Computers do it
all these days.
If you want to stop people cold
at a cocktail party, tell 'em
you’re a professional philosopher.
As in,
‘What do you do?’
‘I’m a philosopher.’
‘Well, we’re all philosophers.’
‘I’m a professional philosopher.’
Sometimes folks say,
‘Gee it’s good to help people
with their emotional problems.’
But what I dread is the person
who asks: ‘What’s a philosopher?’
‘Somebody who does philosophy.’
‘Well, what’s that?’
‘What philosophers do.’
I mean, I know philosophy when
I see it, but I’m not sure I can
characterize it. Nobody knows what
we do, least of all us. But we’ve
done whatever it is for so long,
we’re safe, you see. We must be
doing something, people figure.
At least before we get tenure. Best
As to why people don’t mistakenly call recorders whistles (instead of mistakenly calling whistles recorders), that’s pretty simple. Most Americans at least are A LOT more familiar with recorders. They’re awfully common as beginners instruments in the elementary schools. Limited Too even sells glitter-spangled plastic recorders in every conceivable color (my daughter wants one, and I have to say they just about make me gag!). You can buy attractively packaged beginners packs featuring a Yamaha recorder and a tune book from just about every children’s movie out there in Borders or Barnes & Noble, as well as in most music stores. Most Americans who aren’t into traditional music have probably never even SEEN a whistle (and if they did, they probably had no idea what to call it). Tell the average person on the street that you play a whistle and he’ll probably envision you tooting away on a police whistle.
As for the whole “flute” question, I agree with what has been said already…technically, both the recorder and the whistle ARE flutes (and in most languages, the name for the recorder reflects this), so it’s really not that big a deal.
Redwolf
Tell the average person on the street that you play a whistle and he’ll probably envision you tooting away on a police whistle.
I hate that. It makes you seem so stupid when you tell people you play whistle and that’s what they think of.[/quote]
Play your whistle and if your listeners feel it’s recorder.
It’s actually recorder to them.
But if they can not find the word for the sound you play.
I am sure you will smile. 
Yeah, while the word recorder is more specific, flute isn’t exactly wrong. If you look up the word flute in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the very first definition given is “recorder.”
flute
Pronunciation: 'flüt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English floute, from Middle French fleute, from Old French flaüte, probably from Old Provençal flaut
Date: 14th century
1 a : RECORDER b : a keyed woodwind instrument consisting of a cylindrical tube which is stopped at one end and which has a side hole over which air is blown to produce the tone and having a range from middle C upward for three octaves
2 : something long and slender: as a : a tall slender wineglass b : a grooved pleat (as on a hat brim)
3 : a rounded groove; specifically : one of the vertical parallel grooves on a classical architectural column
In Slovak (which is similar to Czech), a recorder or whistle would be pistalka (with the soft t, something like an inverted ^ on it), while a side-blown flute would be flauta. There are examples of wooden whistles and sideblown flutes in Slovak folk music.
But unfotunately it’s true, in English, flute is the more general term.
You forget, Walden, that agents
of the recorder syndicate have
infiltrated the dictionaries.
And why do you think
American school children
are constantly exposed to
the recorder and know nothing
of whistles–though whistles
are easier to play, sound better,
and are more likely to be
played in later life. Whose
interests are being served,
really…
Cranberry, I had no idea you were a Tori Amos fan!
When I’m feeling miserable, I listen to her . . . I feel worse before feeling better, but at least I’m feeling something.
Tori’s cool!
Quite.
Didn’t the Washington Post expose a major scandal in the 70’s because of Gary Nixon recorders? And they (the Conspiracy) even had the nerve to call it the the Weasel Gate–or was it Water Gate? as if if it had something to do with Glenn Schulz?
Now we take the rap for WMD because of our extended range.
The Crystal People promote recorders, but who cares beside us? 
And Dwight Eisenhower, 20 years earlier, warned us of the “Recorder-Concert flute Complex.”