Whelm  

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To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.

Etymology

From Middle English whelmen (“to turn over, capsize; to invert, turn upside down”), perhaps from Old English *hwealmnian, a variant of *hwealfnian, from hwealf (“arched, concave, vaulted; an arched or vaulted ceiling”), from Proto-Germanic *hwalbą (“arch, vault”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve”). The English word is cognate with German Walm (“a vaulted roof”), Icelandic hvolf (“vaulted ceiling”), Dutch welven (“to arch”), German wölben (“to bend, curve; to arch”), Icelandic hvelfa (“to overturn”), Old Saxon bihwelvian (“to cover; to hide”), Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, hollow, gulf”).

Overwhelm

  1. To engulf, surge-over and submerge
    The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave.
  2. To overpower, crush
    In December 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland with overwhelming force.
  3. To overpower emotionally
    He was overwhelmed with guilt.
    Joy overwhelmed her when she realized that she had won a million dollars.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Whelm" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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