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Thursday March 11, 2010

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maelstrom [MAYL-struhm]

noun

1. A powerful or destructive whirlpool.
2. A restless, disordered, or turbulent state of affairs.

• Gen. Haig's 18-month tenure as secretary proved tumultuous, marked by continuing efforts to claim power over foreign policymaking that Reagan and his aides didn't want to give him. A characteristic first news conference created a maelstrom of bad publicity. Gen. Haig declared himself the "vicar" of foreign policy.
  James Hohmann, "Soldier-statesman was high-profile aide to presidents", The Washington Post, Feb 21, 2010
• As Naomi Wolf says in her book Misconceptions, her take on the bewildering maelstrom that follows conception, we "are weakened, as well as strengthened, by childbirth".
  Antonia Senior, "Equality laws are no longer a mother's helper; Orwellian rules prevent employers and workers from asking honest questions", The Times, Feb 19, 2010
• The whole damn thing has gotten into the maelstrom of politics, of the nastiest partisanship, when it ought to have been lifted up into the clearer air of good sense and national dignity.
  Franklin K. Lane (1864 - 1921) An American Democratic politician who served as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1913 to 1920. The Letters of Franklin K. Lane

Origin of the Word

Maelstrom, approximately 1682, derives Danish malstrom, from Dutch Maelstrom, literally "grinding-stream," from malen "to grind" + stroom "stream."