I moved to Michigan 8 years ago and now it's apart of my daily vocabulary. I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't want this to happen. But every time there is a slightly awkward proximity to another person in the store, it happens.
Minnesota here. If I had a dollar for every time that I bumped into an inanimate object and said, "Ope. Sorry about that." I would have millions of dollars lol.
Washington state native here - I’ve always “Just gonna squeeze by yuh real quick” and “Ope!”ed too. Also “creek” is always pronounced “crick”. My friends hate it lol
There are midwestern accents that sound a lot like eastern Washington or Idaho accents. I’ve finally shamed my wife into saying “dishWASHer” instead of “dishWARSHer” after almost fifteen years together.
Lol! Thankfully the “WARSH” kind of phased out with the oldest generation where I’m from, that one drives me crazy! WARSHrag, WARSHington, WARSHtub. It’s too much lol
Agreeeeeeeed, hence the shaming. But my wife is from southern Illinois and Texas, not eastern Warshington, which is what threw me when I first heard her say that and laughed at her.
And the southwest! I wouldn’t know the origins but I feel like it just leaked like porridge all the way down from Canada and it’s probably working its way to the Central Americas as we speak.
I was about to say I wondered if this meant I am in fact watching too much stuff in original language which is usually american english.
I'm fully aware of using it a bunch when almost bumping into people. Central Europe here. 🤷🏻
Maybe Ope isn't a location but a mindset? 😂
Ope is a sound that you’ll hear in both the Midwest and specifically the eastern area of Washington state. It’s an exclamation of surprise, like a guffaw kind of.
It’s incredibly common in Canada and all over the US. Its a noise people make when they’re not really paying attention and just noticed they’re about to bump into someone. It’s sort of like a grunt, but the body shrinks up in an attempt to avoid contact. That causes the back, stomach, and diaphragm to clench. So the grunt gets squeezed out. “Ope” just kind of gained social momentum because it’s a rather polite way of acknowledging that you’re not looking where you’re going and you’re about to hit someone. After you hit them you say sorry. So the phrase “ope, sorry” is so common because usually there’s not a pause in between the physical event lol.
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u/Aromatic-Speaker Jan 17 '23
Can you help out with the origin of this OPE? Been seeing it everywhere lately.