Sorry, but why do Minnesotans say 'ope' all the time?

Minnesota native Jen Watts is well aware of the state's stereo­types. "Fargo" quotes, you betcha. But she was stumped when her 3-year-old fell over, exclaimed "ope!" and then got back up and toddled on.

"I thought, 'That's a really funny reaction to falling,' and about a day later or so I bumped into something and made the same sound of 'ope' and I said, 'Oh, my gosh, he totally learned that from me,' " Watts said.

She started noticing the word more — from family, friends, even from strangers at Target. Ope was everywhere.

"It made me laugh. … This must be a Minnesota thing that when we bump into something, lose something, whatever it may be, the response is ­'ope!' " Watts said.

But she wondered where ope came from. That's the latest question for Curious Minnesota, our community-driven reporting project fueled by questions from readers.

It turns out the word isn't exclusively Minnesotan, because the Midwest in general seems to claim it. The Kansas City Star wrote a story on the phenomenon in 2017, and before that a radio station in Kalamazoo wrote a blog post calling it "the sound Michiganders make instead of saying 'excuse me.' "

Ope is defined as a Midwestern regionalism by Dictionary.com. It's an onomatopoeic nonword, a verbal instinct used in the moment. It's lumped in with other gut reactions like "meh," "aww" and Homer Simpson's "d'oh!"

The popular Twitter account @IndignantMN — which has 12,700 followers — is dedicated to Minnesota appreciation and celebration. Naturally, ope holds a special place in the hearts of the two men who run it. "The funny thing is it's not really a word," said one of the Indignant Minnesotans, who prefers anonymity. "Is someone saying 'oops'? What does it come from?"

Anatoly Liberman, a professor at the University of Minnesota who teaches courses on the history of language, said that in the past, ope was a shortened version of open. "The word is very old in this form," Liberman said. "Throughout the history of English, words ending in N used to lose their N."

Ope first began popping up on Twitter around 2017, when several viral tweets called attention to it. The account @Midwestern_Ope (197,000 followers) took off around the same time as its namesake.

"It's short, it's simple, it's effective," said @Midwestern_Ope, who also asked for anonymity. "People get it. You don't have to think about it; it just comes out."

@IndignantMN theorized that the word complements the Minnesota Nice attitude and the instinct to stay out of people's way. "I think Minnesotans would claim it as their own even if it didn't originate here," he said. Minnesota may not have a long, documented history with ope like it does with hot dish, but that doesn't mean the whirlwind romance is any less passionate.

"Now Minnesotans are prideful of the fact that we say 'ope,' " Watts said. "It's kind of like embracing all the other ways we [talk]: Minnesota Nice, 'Duck Duck Gray Duck.' It makes us who we are."