To just want to sob?

Aka I am so relieved by your response but I should point out that I never attempt humour. Other gransnetters will explain that I have no sense of humour.

Blimey!

Research to explore whether 'whelp' is offensive or not:

All who are willing, ask pregnant people when they are due to whelp.

Report back.

And the death of innocence?

Really?

Today we mourn the death of irony!

Just musing on the climate at the top of the moral high ground and how far the distance is from there to enable condescending comments to be dispensed.

That's so much better Absent. It's refreshing to see a genuine apology being offered with an attempt at humour!
Greatnan I too find some of my aristocratic relatives acquaintances can tend towards vulgarity. I think it's something to do with thinking they are better than the plebs and therefore the normal rules governing society and politeness don't apply to them. They have much in common with yobs.
Bags I suppose it depends on your point of view whether or not one 'takes offence' I'd rather say that there was some healthy debate on the appropriateness of language employed and the sentiment behind it. Is that not allowed?

<waits for remarks like "my birthings were very dignified and refined">

Bloody hell! Some people just look for reasons to take offence. Yeesh!

Whelp is from Old English "to bring forth". Not a scrap of vulgarity anywhere near it. And even if there were, childbirth is vulgar – commonplace, unrefined, etc.

The few aristocrats I have known have usually employed pretty basic terms for bodily functions!

I'm sorry about offending with whelp. I didn't realise I would upset some gransnetters with a piece of common (as in vulgar) slang. What about pops his clogs? Perhaps I should have said I wonder what the media will do if the Duke of Edinburgh shuffles off his mortal coil on the same day as the Duchess of Cambridge experiences a happy event. Dear Sensitive Souls and Defenders of Royal Prerogatives, is that better?

Don't we all use alternative terms when it comes to childbirth - we talk about popping, we call babies sprogs, "girls with pearls" have been heard to say they are "in pup", people joke about "the heir and the spare" and the aristocracy used to say a woman was "breeding," It doesn't have to be insulting unless delivered in an insulting context.

Grace bitches whelp, human beings give birth. Simples!

"Whelped" is a prefectly acceptable word for having a puppy and was, I assume used ironically, but I wouldn't presume to second guess what another GNetter meant. I certainly saw no lese-majeste in a harmless enough remark. So I fail to understand why the entire weight of both volumes of the OED have been dropped on me from a great height.

And no, I'm not getting at you,*gracesmum*, I think there's been enough 'getting at' on another thread...

Grace my remark was directed at the use of 'whelping' by another. I'm not sure how you got sidelined into defending that. Peace.

So do you think it's quite acceptable to describe a woman as having 'whelped' rather than having given birth, gracesmum? I don't care whether it's the Duchess of Cambridge or Ms X down the road - IMO it's offensive and, yes, vulgar.

Is this National Let's Pick on Gracesmum Day or what? I did what you presumably did - used the OED and picked the first meaning. No big deal and I wasn't trying to deflect attention from a typo either. So why the heavy sarcasm?

I rest my case

I lifted the definition straight from a reputable dictionary, but of course if you are a professional lexicographer I will bow to your superior knowledge

Surely vulgar's primary meaning is "characteristic of the common people" and common people does not need to have pejorative connotations. e.g. the vulgar tongue = the national or vernacular language (as opposed to Latin.)

I'm with the "much sicker than they are letting on" faction - and given all the times I have trekked to and from the Royal Free clocking up the Virgin Train miles when DH has been poorly, I think HM got let off lightly!

Now that sounds better Harrigran I like mine with fresh squeezed orange, though I believe cranberry juice is what the in crowd drink