Today's Word "Whelm"
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Published in Vocabulary
whelm \hwelm (verb) - To overturn a concave object (boat, bowl, etc.) to cover something with it (= to whelve); to bury under earth, snow, or water; to engulf in a devastating manner, e.g. a flood, storm, avalanche.
"Everyone seemed monumentally underwhelmed by Jeff's performance as CEO, to say the least."
Old English hwelman, probably a blend of helmen "to cover" (as in "helmet") and whelven "to cover" (Old English "hwelfan"). The stem goes back to Proto-Indo-European kel-, the origin of "hell," "hole," and "holster," plus Latin clam (calam) "secretly" which gave us "clandestine" and Greek kleptein (kaleptein) "to conceal, steal" whence "kleptomaniac."