posted April 14, 2008 05:03 PM
Being a dictionary fiend, and having done medieval fairs, archaisms are a passion of mine along with Lexigrams. I have said variants of such as:"Ye doth whelm me sire!"
And:
"Thy wyrds dost so whelmeth up in me herte"
quote:
Also I find it very odd that people continuously reference that they are "overwhelmed" with this or that. Why are they never catching the issue while it's at just plain "whelmed" 
Never do you hear someone say: "Oh my, I am so whelmed..."
*shakes head
Actually one can archaically be whelmed/welmed. 
c.1300, probably from a parallel form of O.E. -hwielfan (W.Saxon), -hwelfan (Mercian), in ahwelfan "cover over;" probably altered by association with O.E. helmian "to cover" (see helmet).
whelm (hwlm, wlm)
tr.v. whelmed, whelm·ing, whelms
1. To cover with water; submerge.
2. To overwhelm.
[Middle English whelmen, to overturn, probably alteration (influenced by helmen, to cover) of whelven, from Old English -hwelfan (as in hwelfan, to cover over).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Verb 1. whelm - overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
overwhelm, sweep over, overpower, overtake, overcome
devastate - overwhelm or overpower; "He was devastated by his grief when his son died"
clutch, get hold of, seize - affect; "Fear seized the prisoners"; "The patient was seized with unbearable pains"; "He was seized with a dreadful disease"
arouse, elicit, evoke, provoke, enkindle, kindle, fire, raise - call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses); "arouse pity"; "raise a smile"; "evoke sympathy"
kill - overwhelm with hilarity, pleasure, or admiration; "The comedian was so funny, he was killing me!"
benight - overtake with darkness or night
knock out - overwhelm with admiration; "All the guys were knocked out by her charm"
stagger - astound or overwhelm, as with shock; "She was staggered with bills after she tried to rebuild her house following the earthquake"
lock - hold fast (in a certain state); "He was locked in a laughing fit"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/whelm
overwhelm Look up overwhelm at Dictionary.com
c.1330, "to turn upside down, to overthrow," from over + M.E. whelmen "to turn upside down" (see whelm). Meaning "to submerge completely" is c.1450. Perhaps the connecting notion is a boat, etc., washed over, and overset, by a big wave. Fig. sense of "to bring to ruin" is attested from 1529. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=overwhelm
quote:
That welmeth up with wavesbrighte
The mountance of two finger highte."Geoffrey Chaucer"
Often spelled as welm not whelm.
In archaisms, in the days before dictionaries and dictionary standards, words were often spelled in many different ways.
Lindaland
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posted April 12, 2008 03:21 PM
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