whelm

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The Word of the Day for September 21 is: 

whelm   \WELM\   verb
     1 : to turn upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf 
completely with usually disastrous effect 
    *2 : overwhelm 
     3 : to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it

Example sentence:
     Marya was a bit whelmed by the new and unfamiliar task.

Did you know?
     "It is not overwhelming and it is not underwhelming. You leave the 
production feeling merely whelmed." Thus wrote Michael Phillips in the _Los 
Angeles Times_, February 6, 2001. Recently, writers like Phillips have begun 
using "whelm" to denote a middle stage between "underwhelm" and "overwhelm." 
But that's not how "whelm" has traditionally been used. "Whelm" and "overwhelm" 
have been with us since Middle English (when they were "whelmen" and 
"overwhelmen"), and throughout the years their meanings have largely 
overlapped. Both words early on meant "to overturn," for example, and both have 
also come to mean "to overpower in thought or feeling." Around 1950, however, 
folks started using a third word, "underwhelmed," for "unimpressed," and lately 
"whelmed" has been popping up with the meaning "moderately impressed." 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.