Maelstrom
1: a powerful often violent
whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius 2: something resembling a
maelstrom in turbulence
Maelstrom comes from an early Dutch proper
noun that is a combination of the verb malen ("to grind") and the
noun stroom ("stream"). The original Maelstrom, now known as the
Moskstraumen, is a channel located off the northwest coast of Norway that has
dangerous tidal currents and has been popularized among English speakers by
writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne (whose writing was widely
translated from French) in stories exaggerating the Maelstrom's tempestuousness
and transforming it into a whirling vortex. Maelstrom entered English in the
16th century and was soon applied more generally in reference to any powerful
whirlpool. By the mid-19th century, it was being applied figuratively to things
or situations resembling such maelstroms in turbulence or confusion.