whelm

Thanks for the reference! I absolutely couldn't remember where it was from. Ok, 1834 is not archaic, but so many phrases are written into church songs, prayers, etc. and then petrified. For example, modern writers don't use 'thee' or 'thou', but we read them in church writings all the time (well, some churches). I can't imagine many people today using 'whelm', so I think of it as fossilized.

That being said, it would be cool to bring it back.

That's from the hymn "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand." Archaic?

I think I've heard of it used to describe "a whelming flood." Probably a frozen fragment of language rather than an actual, modern word.

Chastity: I know you can be underwhelmed, and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be, like, whelmed?

Bianca: I think you can in Europe.

-10 Things I Hate About You

Well, you could adequatewhelm, I suppose, but that's kind of...uh...what's the word I'm looking for? Underwhelming. Yes. That's it.

What if I want to increase my personal whelm factor without going over? Can I superwhelm? I'd hate to exceed my limits of whelmnation but wouldn't want to settle for mediocre either.

Huh. Interesting. So saying "overwhelm" may be to commit a word-crime similar to that of "irregardless"? Frightening.

Apparently a person can, in fact, be "whelmed" without qualifier. Except it means the same thing as being overwhelmed. Hmm. Who knew?