This entry is inspired by its predecessor. After thinking for a while about the word überraschen, German for surprise, I started to wonder whether or not it was a compound word. Über, obviously, is a word. It turns out raschen is not a stand-alone, kind of like how people can be overwhelmed but not just plain whelmed (and not underwhelmed, either. That’s not a word. “I know it’s not ‘cuz I looked it up.”).

But the thing about whelm, I’ve found, is that it’s more commonly-used relative, overwhelm, is actually a synonym, too. I thought, initially, that whelm meant something and overwhelm meant that same thing, only to a greater extent. Nope. Whelm and overwhelm have exactly the same meaning. Overwhelm is a redundancy. In fact, they’re used in each other’s definitions. And they both have marine roots.

… but they may whelm you. We hope that works out.

Whelm comes from the Old English hwielfan, to cover over. Etymologists say it was probably altered because of its close relation to the Old English helmian, to cover, which is the root of the contemporary English word helmet. Anyway, nowadays whelm means to cover or engulf with water, to immerse, submerge or overcome by some other stimuli, like emotions. Overwhelm, as I mentioned, carries these same definitions, except its generally used to convey the overcome-by-emotional-stimuli part.

Both words seem to have appeared around the same time in the 1300s. Anybody else wondering about 14th century maritime history at this point? I sure am. Here are a few highlights:

• In Northern Europe, the Hanseatic League held a trade monopoly, thanks in no small part to its vast ports (shown right). In this prime time for pirates, the League rocked everyone’s socks off until about 1600, whereupon it followed the fate of all absolute powers and corrupted absolutely.
• The dry compass was first invented (by Europeans, anyway, it seems the Chinese thought of it first), enabling sophisticated navigation.
• Arctic exploration had begun. This included penetration of the Arctic circle by two Italian navigators.
• Portugal was apparently the hot seat for seamen with Ulysses complexes. Although it was only created in 1321, by the end of the century the Portuguese Navy had defended Portugal against “Muslim pirates” and made the country one of the world’s first honest to goodness naval powerhouses. A few decades later, the Portuguese navy would survey both the African coast and the Atlantic Ocean while expanding Portuguese territory in Northern Africa.
• There is an absolute deluge (no pun intended) of research and artifacts surrounding 14th century maritime history. This bullet is mostly here because I cannot deal with even-numbered bullets in a list.

FYI, Whelm is also the name of a band from Denmark which describes itself as “Doom/Sludge/Post-Hardcore.” My mother would call it “monotonous” and “jarring,” but it’s not altogether unlistenable.

-Nicole