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 (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whelp (plural whelps)

1. A young offspring of a 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)
• (Newfoundland) whelping ice
• whelpie
• 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 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)
• 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)

See also

• Guelf, Guelph
• Welf
• Welfe
• Welpe

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. (transitive, intransitive, 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)
• Danish: hvalpe, få hvalpe
• Faroese: hvølpa
• French: mettre bas (fr)
• German: werfen (de), Junge werfen, jungen (de), wölfen (de)
• Greek: γεννώ (el) (gennó)
• Hebrew: להמליט (lehamlit)
• Hungarian: ellik (hu), megellik (hu)
• Old English: hwelpian
• Portuguese: parir (pt)
• Romanian: făta (ro)
• Russian: щени́ться (ru) n (ščenítʹsja)
• Spanish: parir (es)

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.

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.

Related terms

• whelpen
• whelpynge

Descendants

• English: whelp
• Scots: whalp, whaulp

References

• “whelp, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-09.