maelstrom

noun

1. a large, powerful, or violent whirlpool.
2. a restless, disordered, or tumultuous state of affairs: the maelstrom of early morning traffic.
3. (initial capital letter) a famous hazardous whirlpool off the NW coast of Norway.

noun

1. a large powerful whirlpool
2. any turbulent confusion

noun

1. a strong tidal current in a restricted channel in the Lofoten Islands off the NW coast of Norway

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 (e.g. 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.”