I'm a young fugitive and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today we'll talk about the word overwhelmed and we'll talk about idioms that use the word

fever.

Before we get started though, thank you to Neil Veglio, smiley girl Jay, easy 17, Kenneth

Winfrey and Mr. P's for leaving Grammar Girl reviews last week on Pod Chaser.

They're making donations to meals on wheels for every review people leave on their website

before April 30.

So head to podchaser.com, leave a review for Grammar Girl and all your other favorite podcasts

and you'll be doing a double good deed.

First, I have a quick answer to a question I got last week from Jessica in East Harlem.

She wrote, My mother texted me asking if I was overwhelmed and pondered in the same text,

why can you be overwhelmed but not overwhelmed?

So I looked it up and found that wellmed actually is a word.

I had no idea, I've never heard it used.

Any idea why people use over and under but not just wellmed?

Well Jessica, I was surprised to find that wellmed is a word too.

It was originally a nautical term.

Back in the 1300s, it meant to capsize or to turn any kind of hollow vessel upside down.

And it was sometimes used with the word over.

For example, one sentence in the Oxford English Dictionary reads,

There ovens are large pots which they wellmed over things to be baked upon heated iron plates.

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