The Word of the Day for September 21

whelm • \WELM\ • verb

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?whelm001.wav=whelm


1 : to turn upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect*
2 : overwhelm
3 : to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it


Example sentence:Marya was a bit whelmed by the new and unfamiliar task.
Did you know?"It is not overwhelming and it is not underwhelming. You leave the production feeling merely whelmed." Thus wrote Michael Phillips in the Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2001. Recently, writers like Phillips have begun using "whelm" to denote a middle stage between "underwhelm" and "overwhelm." But that's not how "whelm" has traditionally been used. "Whelm" and "overwhelm" have been with us since Middle English (when they were "whelmen" and "overwhelmen"), and throughout the years their meanings have largely overlapped. Both words early on meant "to overturn," for example, and both have also come to mean "to overpower in thought or feeling." Around 1950, however, folks started using a third word, "underwhelmed," for "unimpressed," and lately "whelmed" has been popping up with the meaning "moderately impressed."*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.