OVERWHELMED

My apologies for not keeping in touch with you all.

A picture being worth a thousand words, I wanted to let you know I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed … hence the drawing, which is quite an accurate description of my current mental state. However, it turns out I couldn’t find myself listed in the more than eighty words and phrases synonymous with overwhelmed. Instead, it turns out I am merely whelmed.

I have to admit it is a bit underwhelming to think of myself as being whelmed. It has a rather passive quality to it, and falls into the category of falling victim to circumstances.  And, in fact I recognize my innate couch potato self as being rather vulnerable to being overcome with even minor events and overlong to-do lists. However, I feel whelmed lacks the gravitas, the importance, the emphasis, achieved by adding the  over to the  whelmed. But, even I admit the whole swamped, submerged and inundated verbiage is a bit over the top. So, I guess I’m whelmed will have to do.

Meh

Overwhelm. swamp, submerge, engulf, bury, deluge, flood, inundate; clog, saturate, glut, overload, beset, overburden, snow under.defeat (utterly/heavily/easily), trounce, rout, beat, beat hollow, conquer, vanquish, be victorious over, gain a victory over, prevail over, get the better of, triumph over, best, worst, gain mastery over, master, overpower, overcome, overthrow, subdue, suppress, subjugate, repress, quell, quash, crush, finish, bring someone to their knees, break; informal thrash, lick, clobber, whip, wipe the floor with, drub, tank, blow out of the water; US English informal own. 3 she was overwhelmed by a sense of tragedy. overcome, move, stir, affect, touch, impress, sweep someone off their feet, strike, stun, make emotional, dumbfound, shake, disturb, devastate, take aback, daze, spellbind, dazzle, floor, leave speechless, take someone’s breath away, stagger; informal bowl over, blow away, knock/hit for six, knock sideways, blow someone’s mind, get to.

whelm | (h)welm | archaic verb [with object] engulf, submerge, or bury: a swimmer whelmed in a raging storm. • [no object] flow or heap up abundantly: the brook whelmed up from its source. noun an act or instance of flowing or heaping up abundantly; a surge: the whelm of the tide. ORIGIN Middle English: representing an Old English form parallel to hwelfan ‘overturn (a vessel’).