Etymology

whelp

W4H4E1L1P3

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Middle English whelp ← Old English hwelp ← Proto-West Germanic *hwelp
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whelp · noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hwelpaz
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hwelp
  3. Old English · inherited fromhwelp
  4. Middle English · inherited fromwhelp
  5. English todaywhelp

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.

whelp · verb2

  1. Old English · inherited fromhwelpian
  2. Middle English · inherited fromwhelpen
  3. English todaywhelp

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

whelp · interjection3

Variant of welp.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.