"Welcome in!"
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I'm in the little (population about two hundred) town of Wamsutter in southwest Wyoming. It's just west of the Continental Divide and bills itself as "The Gateway to the Red Desert". It is the largest settlement, and the only incorporated town in the Great Divide Basin.
The name Wamsutter is intriguing, but it doesn't sound Native American, like so many other toponyms in Wyoming. As a matter of fact, Wamsutter was originally known as Washakie (c.1804/1810 – February 20, 1900) after the formidable Shoshone chief, but was later changed to its current name due to confusion with nearby Fort Washakie. No great loss for the Shoshone leader, since so many other places and things in Wyoming are named after him, including the excellent student dining center at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, in front of which stands a most impressive statue of the chief on his horse. When the town decided to switch its name, at least they retained the initial "Wa" of the original designation, which reminds me of "The Good Old Song" of the University of Virginia, with its "Wah-hoo-wa" cheer, borrowed from Dartmouth.
Wamsutter is the surname of a Union Pacific bridge engineer, but that's not what I want to write about today. Instead, I will talk about a thought-provoking experience I had at one of the three big gas stations / truck stops that seem to constitute the raison d'être for the town in its present manifestation. (Earlier it would have been a stage coach stop, and in medieval Central Asia it would have been a caravanserai filled with Sogdian traders and their stinking, drooling camels.)
The three stations / stops are One9, Love's, and Conoco. I went in all three to get supplies and food. While I was in the One9, I was puzzled by the frequent shouts of the employees that punctuated the bustling atmosphere of the shoppers and drivers coming and going. "Eh Uh Ih!" "Eh Uh Ih!" (Don't forget that I have tinnitus, which causes one to lose most consonants.)
I really didn't know what they were saying, and I was dying with curiosity to know what it was. Curiosity got the better of the cat, so I went up and asked one of the workers what it was.
"Welcome in!" he said. I almost fell over, both because of my perplexity at not understanding it in the first place and because of my instant realization the it was the exact analog of the ubiquitous Japanese greeting, "irasshaimase". The latter is invariably translated as "welcome", but it literally means "(please) come (in)". Thus the One9 employees' greeting "Welcome in!" is an ingenious combination of "welcome" and "(please) come (in)", with an emphasis on the adverb. We'll have to ask Master Grammarian Geoff Pullum exactly what "in" is doing in the phrase "Welcome in".
Curosity continued to get the better of the cat, so I asked one of the One9 employees if he and his coworkers were instructed by their manager to call out "Welcome in!" to each customer who entered the store. He replied, "Yep! Meet and greet." The cat pursued, "Is this company policy at all One9 travel centers?" "Yes," he acknowledged. "It's not just a local thing."
By the way, One9 is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. They know how to do business.
After I filled up my tank and was about to head down the road to Rock Springs, I looked up and noticed this large sign above the entrance to the One9 store: WELCOME.
Selected readings
- "Irasshaimase?" (4/19/21)
- "Irasshaimase?, part 2" (11/10/21)
Lillie Dremeaux said,
September 9, 2024 @ 9:04 am
I first had "Welcome in!" addressed to me as I walked into an upscale retail chain in a mall in Westchester County, N.Y., maybe about six years ago. After that, I heard it at other high-end shops, instead of the usual "Welcome" … and then I moved out of the country for a while. It seems to have become more widespread since.
Gregory Kusnick said,
September 9, 2024 @ 10:42 am
Six years sounds about right. Where I live now in California it seems to have become the standard greeting in shops and restaurants of all sorts.
Wamsutta is a Native American name; he was the eldest son of Massasoit. Among other things, a New England textile manufacturer, a posh country club, and a US Navy steamship were named after him. It's not inconceivable that your bridge engineer's surname derives from Wamsutta as well.
Michèle Sharik Pituley said,
September 9, 2024 @ 3:00 pm
Several years ago, when I was visiting my German family in Sögel, we spent some time strolling the grounds of Schloß Clemenswerth. Several (Most?) of the signs there are in multiple languages, including English.
One sign said "Welcome in Schloß Clemenswerth!" and I commented "oh, that should say 'welcome TO' not 'welcome IN'". My cousin Rolf (who is German and speaks English, but has never lived in a primarily English-speaking country), said, "No, 'welcome in' is correct." I replied, "It depends on the usage. I would say 'you are welcome in my home', but when meeting you at the door, I would say 'welcome to my home'."
He continued to argue with me about it, which doesn't surprise me; he *is* my family, after all, and we all come by it honestly. :-)
Not a naive speaker said,
September 9, 2024 @ 3:09 pm
From my copy of Wyoming place Names Mae Urbanek
Wamsutter, Sweetwater: the original name was Washakie; this caused much confusion, because freight for Fort Washakie was often sent here; so the name was changed in 1884 or 1885 to Wamsutter, for a German bridge builder on the UP railroad.
Turritella agates are scattered over dry prairies south of Wamsutter. These agatized shells were once the homes of life in marshy flats or lakes here. "Turris" is Latin for tower; the tiny shells twist like miniature towers. Millions of shells are weathered out of their matrices. Turritella agates are excellent for sawing and polishing.