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

• IPA^(key): /wɛlp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /ʍɛlp/
• Rhymes: -ɛlp
• Homophone: welp (wine–whine merger)

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.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     […] And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ſtolne away, ſhe being otherwhere.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:

     Pro. […] Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he^[sic] did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape.

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

• bear-whelp
• fox whelp, fox-whelp, fox's whelp (foxling)
• whelpie
• whelping ice (Newfoundland)
• whelpling
• whelpy
• wolf whelp, wolf-whelp, wolf's whelp

Translations

young of a mammal

• Armenian: ձագ (hy) (jag)
• Bulgarian: кутре (bg) n (kutre)
• Catalan: cadell (ca) m
• Czech: štěně (cs) n, mládě (cs) n
• Danish: hvalp (da) c
• Esperanto: hundido (eo) (dog), lupido (wolf)
• Faroese: hvølpur m
• French: chiot (fr) m (dog), louveteau (fr) m (wolf), louvetelle (fr) f (wolf), petit (fr) m
• Galician: cachorro (gl) m
• German: Welpe (de) m, Welpin f
• Greek: σκύμνος (el) m (skýmnos)

  Ancient: σκύλαξ m or f (skúlax), σκύμνος m or f (skúmnos)

• Hebrew: גוּר (he) m (gur)
• Ido: hundyuno (io) (dog), volfyuno (io) (wolf)
• Italian: cucciolo (it) m
• Latin: catulus, catellus
• Low German: Welp m, Wölp m, Wülp m
• Old English: hwelp m
• Portuguese: filhote (pt) m
• Romanian: cățel (ro) m (dog), lupan (ro) m (wolf)
• Russian: щено́к (ru) m (ščenók)
• Spanish: cachorro (es), caduelo, cadillo
• Swedish: valp (sv) c
• Turkish: enik (tr)
• Volapük: dogül (vo) (dog), lupül (wolf)
• Woiwurrung: boobop yerranginin

See also

• Guelph

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

(animals) to give birth

• Bulgarian: окучвам се (okučvam se)
• Catalan: cadellar (ca), quissoiar (ca)
• Danish: hvalpe, få hvalpe
• Faroese: leggja
• French: mettre bas (fr)
• Galician: parir (gl)
• German: werfen (de), Junge werfen, jungen (de), wölfen (de)
• Greek: γεννώ (el) (gennó)
• Hebrew: הִמְלִיט (himlít)
• Hungarian: ellik (hu), megellik (hu)
• Old English: hwelpian
• Portuguese: parir (pt)
• Romanian: făta (ro)
• Russian: щени́ться (ru) n (ščenítʹsja)
• Spanish: parir (es)
• Welsh: bwrw (cy) (transitive)

Etymology 3

Variant of welp.

Interjection

whelp

1. Alternative form of welp (“well”).

Middle English

Alternative forms

• quelp, quelpe, qwelp, qwelpe, welp, welpe, whelpe
• ȝwelp, hwelp, hweolp, whellp (Early Middle English)

Etymology

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

The Southwest Midland form hweolp shows a development of /ɛ/ into /œ/ under the influence of the preceding /w/ and the following labial (like tweolf, weob, weopmon).

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)
   • c. 1225, Ancrene Ƿiſſe (MS. Corpus Christi 402)‎^[3], Ludlow, Shropshire, published c. 1235, folio 53, verso; republished at Cambridge: Parker Library on the Web, 2018 January:

     Þe neddꝛe of attrı onde haueð ſeoue hƿelpeſ. Ingratıtudo. þıſ cundel bꝛet hwa ſe nıſ ıcnaƿen goddede. ah teleð lutel þrof. oþer foꝛȝet mıd alle.

     The snake of poisonous envy has seven children. Ingratitude: this child is nurtured by whoever hasn't acknowledged benefits and hardly thinks about or [even] entirely forgets [them].

3. A whelp (as an insulting term)
4. (rare) An unknown kind of mechanical machine or system.

Related terms

• whelpen
• whelpynge

Descendants

• English: whelp
• Scots: whalp, whaulp