Verklempt is Yiddish for “overcome with emotion.” It is one of the most popular Yiddish words to have permeated culture. The origins of verklempt trace back to the Yiddish farklempt, referring to depression and grief.
Farklempt is the past tense of farklemen, which means “to grip, press” and has roots in the German word verklemmen, “to press, squeeze,” which is related to the German verklemmt (“uptight”). And, following verklempt even further back in time, leads to the Old English word clam or clom, meaning to “bond” or “fetter.”