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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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There has been an overwhelming tendency for radio newsreaders to use the word "underwhelm" recently.
Do others amongst you feel that, whilst it was a humourously effective perversion of "overwhelm" the first time it was used, that it poses a threat to the language? Or is it yet another evolution that we have to shrug our shoulders over and try not to wince too much each time we hear it?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I haven't heard it yet, and I'm not clear as to how it is used. Example, please? Also, how is it different from unmoved or unimpressed?  Marianna
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old hand
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old hand
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I think "underwhelmed" is used to mean that the occasion/act/presentation was intended to overwhelm the viewer, but utterly failed to do so, leaving them instead underwhelmed. Anyone else?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Yes, I agree with Max. I don't think there necessarily has to be an original overt intention to overwhelm, but that the phrase is, indeed, an ironic response to an event that is claimed to be "a bit special."
And yes, Max, it does fill a niche if used as an aid to irony - but even if confined to that speciality, it could (has?) easily become devalued through over use.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks for clarifying the meaning of underwhelm. Even if I was aiming for an ironic effect, I'd still probably say "indifferent" instead... Marianna
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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<<Do others amongst you feel that, whilst it was a humourously effective perversion of "overwhelm" the first time it was used, that it poses a threat to the language? >>
Oh, maybe--but I'd be more inclined to call this overwhelming hyperbole. :)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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here's an up-to-the-minute (and underwhelming) spotting from today's paper:
Now music scholars will get what they'll wish they hadn't wished for with "Bride of the Wind," Bruce Beresford's painfully careful, historically literal and criminally underwhelming portrait of, among others, classical music's towering late-romantic genius, Gustav Mahler. The movie opened Friday at the Lagoon theater in Minneapolis.
now, for 64¢, which word fits better in the phrase "criminally underwhelming"?
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