Past tense of weep; to cry or shed tears, usually from sadness or strong emotion.
From Old English 'wepan,' related to Germanic roots. The modern form 'wept' is the strong past tense, preserving an ancient vowel change pattern that English still uses in words like 'keep/kept' and 'sleep/slept.'
English verbs like 'weep' show us fossils of how our language worked thousands of years ago—the vowel shift from 'ee' to 'e' in the past tense is a ghost of Proto-Germanic patterns that many languages abandoned.
Weeping has been culturally coded as feminine weakness in many contexts, historically used to dismiss women's emotional expression as hysteria or irrationality rather than legitimate response.
Use without gendered assumptions. Emotional expression across genders is human and valid; avoid linking tears to weakness or exaggeration based on speaker gender.
Women's emotional authenticity has been systematically pathologized; normalize emotional expression regardless of gender identity.
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