Unwhelmed

1872, William Watkiss Lloyd, The History of Sicily to the Athenian War; with Elucidations of the Sicilian Odes of Pindar, London: John Murray, Book 2, Chapter 6 “To Hiero of Syracuse (Second Pythian Ode),” p. 291, For I, like the cork above a net, whilst the other tackle plies the sea-toil deep below, am still unwhelmed by the brine.

1915, Ludwig Lewisohn (translator), Charlemagne’s Hostage, Act II, in The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, New York: B.W. Huebsch, Volume 5, p. 300, […] The old man with the look of one Drowning, who gave thy freedom unto thee— ’Tis he still breathing, still unwhelmed, who crosses Thy path once more to-day.

Under the most favourable conditions dialects are destined to dwindle and decay, and we ought to be grateful to the writers who preserve for us a little longer old-time habits, customs and idiosyncracies in the folk speech of small communities as yet unwhelmed by the onrush of modern life.