Origin: Germanic Old English prefix
Overload has 7 different meanings across 2 categories:
an electrical load that exceeds the available electrical power
"The old generator tripped and sparked when we tried to overload it by plugging in too many heaters at once."
an excessive burden
"The aging server began to lag under the weight of too many simultaneous requests, threatening to become a system-wide overload."
An excessive load.
"The old truck struggled under the weight of the overloaded cargo."
to load excessively
"The truck was overloaded with crates that made it difficult to steer."
The word overload combines the prefix over-, meaning "too much," with load to describe carrying more than one can handle. It entered English as a straightforward compound of these two existing parts without any shift in its core meaning.