|
|
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2 |
I recently had occasion to look up the etymology of "overwhelmed". I figured that since one could be "overwhelmed" or "underwhelmed", there must be some normative state of being "whelmed". I discovered the OE link with helmet, i.e. "to be covered". OK, understandable.
But then I realized that the "under" in "underwelmed" was a logical variation not on the root word, but only on the prefix, and etymologically made little sense.
Is there a name for such words? I would define them as non-etymological arbitrary, sometimes even contradictory variations.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
underwhelmed is really just a neologism, no? (hi dale!) and hi Marc! and welcome to the Board! 
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Quote:
underwhelmed is really just a neologism, no? (hi dale!)
yeah.. 50 years ago!
1956 T. K. QUINN Giant Corporations viii. 61 He wrote..commending the action of one of the giant corporations for a..price reduction at a time when prices were rising. I was underwhelmed, and investigated.
edit: from M-W Dict. of English Usage..
Our earliest record of it is from the New Yorker in 1944, when it was used by Howard Brubaker in the form of the participial adjective underwhelming. We first found it used as a transitive verb in 1949: And Dr. James B. Conant's recent effort to find a cause for hope... leaves me, in the words of Abner Dean, utterly underwhelmed. -Philip Wylie, letter to the Editor, Atlantic, April 1949
Last edited by tsuwm; 12/19/06 12:35 AM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
cool, it's a kind of retroneologism!
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2 |
It's a neologism, but it's a certain kind of neologism in which the "neo" part, unlike the "archeo" part, has no relationship, or even a contradictory one, to the once consonant etymology. "Over" is right for "whelmed", but "under" is wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
it's an instance where an originally jocular reversal has become embedded in the language (and, perforce, our dictionaries).
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Etymologically, underwhelm should mean having the ground swept out from under one's feet.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
and overwhelmed is basically redundant?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Mehbe I was working on a misuderstanding. I had thought that the whelm part was somehow related to waves and the whole overwhelm image was of waves rolling over someone. The underwhelm that I had derived from that had the wavbes washing away the beach being stood upon. But it turns out, yes, overwhelm is redundant. But you'd be surprised how rife redundancy is in our language.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
yah, the wave thing makes sense, etymology.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,330
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
995
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
