Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 April 10

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April 10

Overwhelmed vs. Underwhelmed

I'm interested to see if there are any more antitheses like this. 'Underwhelmed' seems to have recently come into regular usage, and I am all for it. It's a lovely word. But what I would like to ask is, while 'Overwhelmed' might mean 'something really powerful happened to me' and 'underwhelmed' might mean 'something totally powerless happened [today]', a poster above put forward the hypothetical word 'whelmed', which would mean 'something totally normal happened'. I'm interested in knowing how many words might actually be in usage which have these three levels - i.e. not enough, normal, and too much, and if there are none, how many can we make with our beautiful language of suffixes and prefixes?--KageTora (talk) 02:21, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Understated - stated - overstated; underdeveloped - developed - overdeveloped --Dr Dima (talk) 02:38, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I think we could have some fun with "disgruntled" - gruntled, overgruntled, undergruntled, transgruntled, hypergruntled, perigruntled, regruntled, pregruntled, postgruntled, circumgruntled (that might apply to pigs) ... so many possibilities, so little time.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 02:43, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Overtake, take (to know carnally?), undertake. Please don't over/under-react. Sundardas (talk) 04:57, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

A curious one is inept and "ept". Clearly ept is not a word. However the OED points out that inept comes from in- + aptus APT. So much for that one. Another one is unkempt. Clearly kempt is not a word. Oh but is it, at least in the OED. kempt, ppl. a. Of hair or wool: Combed. Also with advs., as well-kempt, etc. Cf. UNKEMPT. The things you can learn from the OED.. Pfly (talk) 05:58, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

See also the article on unpaired word. Back to the question on triplets: there seem to be many verbs and past particples existing on all three levels. I started with wiktionary special pages with prefix = "undera" and found triplets for the following verbs A-F:

(over-/under-)achieve, act, apply, bet, bid, capitalize, charge, clock, cook, cool, count, damp, do, dose, dress, eat, educate, estimate, exaggerate, explain, feed, fund, ...

May have missed some, might continue later. Wiktionary doesn't know " overfucked". ---Sluzzelin talk 06:16, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

What was it now? That phrase that used to apply to American soldiers in the UK during WW2? 'Overpaid, over-sexed, and over 'ere'?--KageTora (talk) 10:14, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Nice one! I particularly like Jack's massive applications of the 'gruntled' stem. I was going to ask to disclude that word from any answers, as all I could think of was the opposite of 'disgruntled' being (logically) 'gruntled' and that it was an old joke, but Jack has taken it to a whole new level!--KageTora (talk) 06:28, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Underwhelmed is a great song by the Canadian band Sloan, in which the singer inform us that it is not a word, because he looked it up. Adam Bishop (talk) 16:54, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

An amusing list by Jack Winter appears in Talk:Unpaired_word#Story. Certes (talk) 01:47, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Apparently over in overwhelmed is already an intensive, as whelm means to turn something upside down over something, notably as when your boat capsizes. That's when you're literally overwhelmed. --Wetman (talk) 02:30, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

need translation "je suis médusé"

I'd like to add a small piece to our current FAOTD. In Asterix the Legionary, our heroes beat the tar out of a group of pirates. Shown floating on a raft in a manner similar to the The Raft of the Medusa, the captain remarks, "Je suis médusé!" The "pun" part is that he seems to be saying, "I am like the raft of the Medusa", while actually saying something else. What does that phrase actually mean? Online translators say it means "I am jellyfish", so I'm guessing there's some kind of idiom involved. Incidentally, the English translators may have surpassed the originals; in the English version, the captain says, "We've been framed, by Jericho!" Matt Deres (talk) 14:12, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

It would be like saying "What do we have in common with paintings? We have both been framed." I don't know the context, framed could mean the pirates were accused of something they didnt do, or the visual of comic frame could look like the painting and that would make his words a metajoke that breaks the fourth wall. Livewireo (talk) 14:17, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Je suis médusé literally means "I'm petrified", in reference to the effect Medusa had on people. —Angr 14:23, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

A little less literal: "stupefied". Equendil Talk 14:33, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

"I'm Medusafied!" Wrad (talk) 17:14, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Angr, Equendil; much appreciated. I appreciate your effort, Livewireo, but you answered the statement part of my post and not the question... Matt Deres (talk) 17:09, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

The "jellyfish" translation could be a reference to the Medusa jellyfish species, cf. Medusa (biology). As in Davy Jones comes a-callin' and all that? -- Fullstop (talk) 17:35, 11 April 2009 (UTC)