This reminds me of an incident when I was about ten years old .... (back in 1963) ....
At my mum's favourite grocery store, one of the counter staff had a rather unhappy expression - my mum referred to him as 'Old Sourface'.
One day we were in the shop and I wanted to ask my mum, discretely, whether the guy serving us was 'old sourface'. I whispered to her, "Is that 'old sourface'?".
"Speak up!", she replied, "I can't hear you."
I whispered a little louder, with the same response from my mum.
So, I asked for a third time, this time in a much louder voice: "Is that 'old sour....'".
I didn't get any further, because my mum interrupted me with a very loud "Shhhhhhh".
