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Explain to me, oh ye goddesses of fandom!
Some of the dearest people to me use words that I just don't understand.
I feel like everyone's using the expression "whelmed" these days. But I just don't know how to take it. I mean, I am a complete nerd, and of course I looked it up in the thesaurus. It lists "overwhelm" as a synonym for "whelm." And it lists "underwhelm" as an antonym. This was my suspicion all along, based on my own personal knowledge of the English language, but I don't know how to tell when someone in fandom is using it for "overwhelm" or if they're using it ironically for "underwhelm." Sometimes by the context, I feel like it's one way. Sometimes I feel like it's the other way. And sometimes I just can't tell at all.
I mean maybe it always means "underwhelmed" in the same way that "the worst" seems to almost always mean "the best."
I am so confused! We live in a backward world, my friends. And we also clearly need to get a fandom-specific dictionary. Can someone do that for me? Thanks.
Some of the dearest people to me use words that I just don't understand.
I feel like everyone's using the expression "whelmed" these days. But I just don't know how to take it. I mean, I am a complete nerd, and of course I looked it up in the thesaurus. It lists "overwhelm" as a synonym for "whelm." And it lists "underwhelm" as an antonym. This was my suspicion all along, based on my own personal knowledge of the English language, but I don't know how to tell when someone in fandom is using it for "overwhelm" or if they're using it ironically for "underwhelm." Sometimes by the context, I feel like it's one way. Sometimes I feel like it's the other way. And sometimes I just can't tell at all.
I mean maybe it always means "underwhelmed" in the same way that "the worst" seems to almost always mean "the best."
I am so confused! We live in a backward world, my friends. And we also clearly need to get a fandom-specific dictionary. Can someone do that for me? Thanks.