I’m not a midwesterner and I answered that I’d never heard of it, but when I read the description I realize I do use it sometimes, just like described – when I bump into someone. I think I use it as a contraction of “oops”.
EDIT: Looks like several others use it the same way.
I grew up in Wisconsin and basically left the state permanently after graduating college in 1996 and I don’t recall saying “ope” as a kid/young adult, or hearing others say it. Really only noticed it as a interjection when I started seeing the Charlie Berens Manitowoc Minute YouTube videos.
But then again, I only really noticed that Wisconsin folks really do have a regional accent all their own when I came back to visit and was around some never-left-the-state natives in the early 2000s after living in California. I thought the accents started with the Yoopers to the north and the Chicagoans to the south as a kid.
What an illuminating poll! I’ve seen a Midwestern friend of mine post memes about the use of the word “ope,” and it talked about it being a Midwestern thing, and I thought she was a little full of herself thinking that the Midwest had a lock on using that word. Turns out (at least according to your poll) that I was wrong and it really IS a Midwestern thing the same way words like “y’all” or “soda pop” are regional.
I was raised on the East Coast and picked up the term from my mother. But my mother went to high school and college in the Midwest, so I guess that’s where she picked it up.
I’m glad this thread popped up. I grew up in Iowa but have lived in the UK for the last 25+ years. I use “oop”. The first time I saw “ope” written down was when the Midwestern memes started popping up. I couldn’t decide if the meme writers were spelling it wrong or I had been pronouncing it wrong after having been away from the Midwest for so long. Glad to see that both “oop” and “ope” are acceptable.
I wasn’t aware of this nickname / abbreviation for Wisconsinites-- I like it! We call ourselves Michiganders. Hmm…could it be shortened to ‘Gander’? Nah, probably not.
Years ago, there was a PR push to get us to start calling ourselves “Michiganians”. I guess somebody thought ‘Michigander’ sounded too lowbrow or something. That idea died a quicker and more ignominious death than adoption of the Metric system.
What nicknames residents of states refer to themselves by (extended to regions / countries for our non-US dopers) might make for a good thread for another time.
Yeah, like I and others have said, it seems like it’s either a conflation of ‘oh’ and ‘oops’, or a shortening of ‘oops’, or ‘whoops’, or just ‘oh’ with the lips closed off at the end to make the ‘p’ sound. Kind of like how ‘well’ became ‘welp’ (though that’s more of a sarcastic variant of ‘well’).
I think I say more of a “whup” than an “ope”.
mmm
ETA: Oh man, I just saw this. My wife does this exactly when she sees a deer. Or a chipmunk. Or a squirrel. Or (probably) a giant squid.
Yet I say words like “ya’ll” and “soda” all the time (soda was a conscious choice… pop just sounds silly to me.) And I’m in Michigan. I hear “folks” around here too, which I typically associate with other regions but it seems to have moved into progressive spaces as an alternative to “ladies” or “gentlemen” to be more inclusive. I guess it’s not hard to adopt various bits of dialect from other places when you hear it.
Same! Grew up saying “pop”, as all my friends did (aside from our Texas transplant kid, for whom fizzy drinks were all “coke”). Switched to “soda” in my late teens/early adulthood.
Nebraskan for the last half century and this is new to me. Maybe it hasn’t made it this far west.
Perhaps too duckish?
Growing up in east central Wisconsin, I called it ‘soda water’.
Midwesterner (Michigan born and raised and currently residing, Chicago for a spell in the early aughts). I say it often, likely without even realizing it. I notice I say it as more of a “Uht(p).” An “uh” sound with a slight catch in the back of my throat at the end, and a very quiet “p” sound to close it out. All done in a flash without much thought going into any of it while it’s happening.
My parents were born in Chicago in the 1903s and grew up there, eventually settling in Los Angeles. They never used “ope” that I heard.
I lived in St. Louis MO from roughly 1994-2014, so 20 years in the Midwest. Which makes me, ah reckon, an honorary Midwesterner. I never heard it used there either.
I’ve never heard of “ope” before this thread.
Hmm. Maybe I just don’t listen carefully enough. However I seldom go anywhere these days where I am liable to run into many random people like the mall. I never heard a “booyah” either. That I am sure of.
I agree that “pop” in and of itself sounds silly and childish. But that is what we say. “Soda” is more like a formal expression. I couldn’t quite hear what a server was asking the other day and it was “fountain”.
Born in Chicago and lived in Chicago area for 63 years, my dad was born in Chicago in 1920 - never heard “ope.”
OTOH, I say “oops” frequently.
I seem to say “oops” more frequently as time goes on. I seem to be getting slowly clumsier as I age.
For example, that sentence of mine should read “… born in Chicago in the 19 30s …”. Oops.
Yes have always used it and I’m not from the Midwest.
I am guessing it might be limited to different neighborhoods, regardless of the state. I have been a decades long resident of both Detroit and suburbs and Cleveland suburbs (as well as exurbs) and I have never encountered it before seeing this thread.
Oops, on the other hand is not uncommon.