So you want to know what Whelm means, huh? Let’s dive in, literary nerds!
Whelm is a really old word. If you were to read about it in a dictionary, you’d learn that the traditional definition of the word is the same thing as “overwhelm.” According to our word-nerd friends at Webster’s, they describe whelm in two different ways:
First, as a transitive verb:
To turn (something, such as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect : To overcome in thought or feeling : overwhelm
And second, as an intransitive verb:
To pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it.
So, according to traditional authors (and Webster’s), Whelm just means to overwhelm. If you’ve been arguing with someone about this, congrats, you won.
Or we’re sorry, you lost. Not sure which side you’re on.
Contemporary authors have used “whelm” to mean something being in between overwhelm and underwhelm. While this is not the traditional use of the word, language belongs to those who currently speak it.
So the word whelm now also means:
To feel content, moderately impressed, pleasant, fine, normal, or as expected.
(That is a definition that we wrote. We’re not a dictionary company, but feel free to pretend we are if it helps your argument.)
Modern-day writers have used “whelm” in this way for years. For example, in the 1999 movie Ten Things I Hate About You, Chastity Church asks, "I know you can be underwhelmed and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
Have you found yourself asking this question yet? We hope so, it’s the whole reason we wrote this article. All that other stuff above is just fluff to see if we can rank pretty high on a Google search.
When our founder – Chipper – was trying to come up with a name for the company, he wrote down dozens of ideas. Most of them were pretty terrible, but there were a few good ones in there. He narrowed down the list one by one, until he had about 10 left.
With his small list of 10, he asked his wife for help, and together they narrowed it down to 3 options. We don’t remember what else made it to that final list of 3, but Whelm was one of them.
Whelm stood out because it made them laugh. The idea of feeling “whelmed” was funny. They actually had never even seen Ten Things I Hate About You, so the quote from Chastity’s character didn’t influence the name either*.
They just knew that freelancers are always overwhelmed with things to do, and underwhelmed with the software options to make life easier. Thus, Whelm was born.
Whelm is a software business. We make free tools for freelancers. Stuff like media review tools, invoicing tools, legal contract templates, project management software, etc. It’s all included in the Whelm platform.
If you’re a freelancer, you can create an account for free and get started using our tools right away.
You could also do that if you’re not a freelancer. You just aren’t our target audience, but we’d welcome you anyway. No shade from us. :)
Yeah!
We have a paid option as well. It’s called the Pro plan. It has a few extra bells and whistles, plus tons of storage space. But almost all of our tools are available on the free plan, so you might as well try it. You don’t even need to enter a credit card to create an account. You have nothing to lose.
Whelm was originally created in 2020 as Jump Studios. In 2022, the software was completely rebuilt from the inside-out. There were a lot of bugs in that first version, but it proved there was a need in the market for software built specifically for freelancers. In early 2023, while the platform was undergoing its overhaul, it was rebranded to Whelm. And here we are now, writing a blog article about it.
So, the TLDR there is Whelm has been around in some form or fashion since 2020.
Go to our homepage, or find us on social media by searching for @whelm_app. We also link to all of our socials in the footer of our website. So, just scroll down I guess?
That’s all folks. Thanks for reading all about Whelm. Hope you liked it.
*Don't worry 90s kids. They have now seen the cinematic masterpiece that is Ten Things I Hate About You. You think they would just ignore all the comments Chipper got on LinkedIn when he announced the name? As if!
