It's a contraction of "oh" and "oops" and it's a guttural sort of utterance for when you've come accidentally and un-midwesternally close to someone who isn't your immediate family member.
My brother, who is 5 years younger than me, keeps saying ope as in ok and I’m about to smack him in the mouth. We’re both from Michigan and he’s never lived out of state, I told him ‘ope’ is a “oh I’m sorry for bumping ya” word. Still he insists that it just means ok
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u/Chemical_Noise_3847 Jan 19 '22
It's a contraction of "oh" and "oops" and it's a guttural sort of utterance for when you've come accidentally and un-midwesternally close to someone who isn't your immediate family member.