My colleague used a phrase the other day that gave cause to a level of pondering - the word that flooded my synaptic clefts with Acetyl-coline was 'overwhelm'. Whelm is to overcome utterly, engulf, submerge, envelope.... overwhelm is therefore completely redundant, - or is it the American need to use the superlative, even more overcome - more pregnant, more unique, more quanta... more French. On that point, perhaps the etymology is French and it is just another verb that supports the desire to surrender.

God whelms in mysterious ways