maelstrom
pronunciation
How to pronounce maelstrom in British English:
UK [ˈmeɪlstrɒm]
How to pronounce maelstrom in American English:
US [ˈmeɪlstrɑm]
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- Noun:
- a powerful circular current of water (usually the resulting of conflicting tides)
Word Origin
- maelstrom (n.)
- 1680s (Hakluyt, 1560s, has Malestrand), name of a famous whirlpool off the northwest coast of Norway, from Danish malstrøm (1673), from older Dutch Maelstrom (modern maalstroom), literally "grinding-stream," from malen "to grind" (see meal) + stroom "stream" (see stream (n.)). The name was used by Dutch cartographers (for example Mercator, 1595). OED says perhaps originally from Færoic mal(u)streymur. Popularized as a synonym for "whirlpool" c. 1841, the year of Poe's "A Descent into the Maelstrom."
Example
- 1. The anxious person has the spirit like a maelstrom .
- 2. Maelstrom weapon no longer affects lava burst .
- 3. Maelstrom : turbulent = mirage : illusory .
- 4. Mirage : illusory = maelstrom : turbulent .
- 5. Paris is a maelstrom where everything is lost , and everything disappears in this belly of the world , as in the belly of the sea .