What Does “Welcome in” Mean?

It seems lately that more and more people are using “Welcome in” as a greeting—and I don’t get it.

In the last six months or so, I’ve noticed that several show hosts on the news channels I watch were saying it to their guests.

“To bloviate on the subject further is expert John Smith. John, welcome in.”

Why not just “Welcome”? Or even, “Welcome to the show”?

Then I noticed that some of my friends and colleagues were doing it on Zoom as they admit people to meetings. And this week, the receptionist in a medical office greeted me with, “Welcome in. I’ll be right with you.”

Again, my question is: Why not just say “Welcome”? And what does “welcome in” even mean?

According to Merriam-Webster, “welcome” is defined as “to greet hospitably and with courtesy or cordiality.” The word “in” is defined as “expressing the situation of something that is or appears to be enclosed or surrounded by something else.”

To say, “You are welcome in my home” makes sense to me. To use “welcome in” as a greeting doesn’t.

Because language fascinates me, I couldn’t let it go. I found an interesting article by John deBary who wondered, “How did this phrase replace the classic ‘welcome!’ as the standard greeting in hospitality spaces?”

Apparently, according to deBary’s research, it’s a Southern thing. I grew up in the South and I don’t recall hearing it before the past year or so. But other people online say they’ve been hearing it for years in various places around the world. And apparently many companies insist their employees use this as a greeting.

In an online discussion of the phrase, someone suggested that if we say “welcome in” as a greeting, we must also say “goodbye out” when people leave. Observations like that are always a good way to get people to actually think about what they’re saying.

I’m sure a lot of people who use “welcome in” as a greeting don’t even realize they’re saying it. A sociolinguistics professor deBary interviewed said that’s a phenomenon “called change from below, meaning below the level of conscious awareness.”

I think as long as “Welcome in” distracts me when I hear it, I’m going to stay consciously aware of it and am not likely to begin saying it.

Read John deBary’s article here.