different between ursid vs whelp

English

Etymology

See Ursidae.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??s?d/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???s?d/

Noun

ursid (plural ursids)

1. (zoology) Any species of the family Ursidae; a bear, a giant panda, or any of certain extinct relatives.

Translations

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, Norwegian Nynorsk kvelp), from pre-Germanic *k?elbos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?lp/
• (without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /??lp/
• Rhymes: -?lp
• 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, The Faerie Queene, VI.11:

     […] And fared like a furious wyld Beare, / Whose whelpes are ?tolne away, ?he being otherwhere.
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.

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

• fox whelp, fox-whelp, fox's whelp (foxling)
• (Newfoundland) whelping ice
• whelpling
• wolf whelp, wolf-whelp, wolf's whelp

Translations

See also

• Guelf, Guelph
• Welf
• Welfe
• Welpe

Etymology 2

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.

Translations

Etymology 3

Variant of welp.

Interjection

whelp

1. Alternative form of welp (“well”)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) hwelp, hweolp, whellp, ?welp
• welp, whelpe, welpe, quelp, quelpe, qwelp, qwelpe

Etymology

From Old English hwelp, from Proto-Germanic *hwelpaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??lp/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /w?lp/, /x??lp/

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.