Welp. Here I am, back where I started

[bob_2]

Why “WELP”…?

Is this a new something or other?

[Beckdawrek]

Resignation or disappointment?

Maybe.

[Pardel-Lux]

@Chicago_Faucet

Things I’m into. Quiet pensive thought and daydreaming. My house. RPGs.

Rocket Propelled Grenades? Aficionado? I must be getting this wrong. Looking forward to some interesting perspectives, welcome back!

[Darren_Garrison]

@bob_2

Why “WELP”…?

Is this a new something or other?

Depends on your definition of “new”. It has been around for at least a couple of years, and isn’t remotely uncommmon.

[Darren_Garrison]

Also, SD hits.

[Darren_Garrison]

@Darren_Garrison

Depends on your definition of “new”. It has been around for at least a couple of years

It is older than I thought. Uses here go all the way back to 1999, and that’s probably the beginning of the archive, not the beginning of the phrase. Here’s one thread from 2005:

WTH is Welp?

Can someone please, please tell me why people online write “Welp,” when they mean “Well,” ? It really bugs me, and I tried googling which just gives me pages and pages of people saying it, and no one explaining. It can’t be a typo, can it? Then it would be Wepp, right? Once you have your finger on the L, there’s no reason to move it to the P!! There’s no reason! I was close to putting this in the Pit, but trying to find the answer has beaten me down so much that I’m not angry, just weary…

[Beckdawrek]

It’s in the dictionary.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@WTH is Welp?

Can someone please, please tell me why people online write “Welp,” when they mean “Well,”

They don’t mean “well” in its pure and simple sense. They do mean “well” but with an added spin of resignation, mild frustration, disillusionment, or a combination. I know it has its roots in some American dialect but I’m not sure which; rural Midwest perhaps? In that context, it’s just phonological variation and carries no added meaning.

[bob_2]

Thanks for the explanation. It is new to me, and it’s a trend that I will not be following.

[Kimstu]

@Darren_Garrison

It is older than I thought. Uses here go all the way back to 1999, and that’s probably the beginning of the archive, not the beginning of the phrase.

Try 1946, and it was doubtless not new even back then.

“Thoughts on ‘Yep’ and ‘Nope’” […]

[…] this p is not phonemic in the ordinary sense of the word, but gestural. It is the lip-closure of the gesture of finality which may be observed at the end of any number of peremptory statements, where it ordinarily passes unnoticed because other terminal sounds obscure it […]

If the speaker is American, and will observe himself when he utters well as a sign of dismissal of some discussion or activity (as in ‘Well’—pause—‘what do we do next?’), he will often discover that he has used welp, with unfinished p.

Welp for well appears to be following the same linguistic path as yep for yeah and nope for no: first exclusive to spoken speech, then represented in writing to suggest extremely colloquial speech, and then a widely recognized normal variant in both speaking and writing, with the final p exaggerated in the spoken form due to the influence of the written form.

[Pardel-Lux]

Well, the things you learn (you being me, in this case): when I read the title my first thought was that this was a mix of well and help! Shows how wrong you can be.