Word of the Day

: November 24, 2006

maelstrom

noun MAIL-strum

What It Means

1 : a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius

2 : something resembling a maelstrom in turbulence

maelstrom in Context

The mayor has been swept up in the media maelstrom surrounding the laundering of thousands of dollars in state funds by city officials.

Did You Know?

"Maelstrom" comes from an early Dutch proper noun that literally meant "turning stream." The original Maelstrom is a channel that has dangerous tidal currents located off the northwest coast of Norway. The word became popularized in the general vocabulary of English in reference to a powerful whirlpool, or something akin to one, in the 19th century. This was partly due to its use by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne (whose writing was widely translated from French) in stories exaggerating the tempestuousness of the Norwegian current and transforming it into a whirling vortex.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.