whelp

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English whelp, from Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz (compare Dutch welp, German Welpe, Welfe, Old Norse hvelpr, Norwegian Nynorsk kvelp, Danish hvalp), from pre-Germanic *kʷelbos, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

whelp (plural whelps)

  1. A young offspring of a various carnivores (canid, ursid, felid, pinniped), especially of a dog or a wolf, the young of a bear or similar mammal (lion, tiger, seal); a pup, wolf cub.
  2. (derogatory) An insolent youth; a mere child.
    • July 13, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian
      That awkward whelp with his money bags would have made his entrance.
    • October 22, 2011, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Luna Eclipsed"
      Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!
  3. (obsolete) A kind of ship.
  4. One of several wooden strips to prevent wear on a windlass on a clipper-era ship.
  5. A tooth on a sprocket wheel (compare sprocket and cog).
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English whelpen, from Old English hwelpian, derived from hwelp.

Verb

whelp (third-person singular simple present whelps, present participle whelping, simple past and past participle whelped)

  1. (ambitransitive, of she-dog, she-wolf, vixen, etc.) To give birth.
    The bitch whelped.
    The she-wolf whelped a large litter of cubs.
Translations

Etymology 3

Variant of welp.

Interjection

whelp

  1. Alternative form of welp (“well”).

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz.[1]

The form hweolp in the AB language shows a development of /ɛ/ into /œ/ under the influence of the preceding /w/ and the following labial (like tweolf, weob, weopmon).[2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hwɛlp/
  • (dialectal) IPA(key): /wɛlp/, /xwɛlp/

Noun

whelp (plural whelpes)

  1. A whelp (a puppy or a baby dog)
  2. A whelp (the young of other animals, especially canids and felids)
  3. A whelp (as an insulting term)
  4. (rare) An unknown kind of mechanical machine or system.

Descendants

  • English: whelp
  • Scots: whalp, whaulp

References

  1. ^ “whelp, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 9 September 2018.
  2. ^ Jordan, Richard (1974),  Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎[1], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 34, page 59.
  3. ^ Zettersten, Arne (1965), “hwelp (sb.)”, in Studies in the dialect and vocabulary of the Ancrene Riwle (Lund Studies in English; 34)‎[2], Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, →OCLC, page 77.
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