whelp

Pronunciation: /hwɛlp/

“whelp” is a Middle English word. Its 4 meanings in English:

noun

A whelp (a puppy; a baby dog)
A whelp (the young of other animals, especially canids and felids)
A whelp (as an insulting term)
An unknown mechanical device or system.

Etymology

From Old English hwelp, from Proto-West Germanic *hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz. The West Midland forms hweolp, weolp show a development of /ɛ/ into /œ/ under the influence of the preceding /w/ and the following labial (like tweolf, weob, weopmon).

More Middle English words

whelen
whelere
whelke
whelmen
whelpen
whelpynge
whelven
whelwryghte

About this dictionary

The Middle English dictionary on Glottosphere has 8,967 entries with a page. Browse the Middle English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.