vortex

Etymology

From Latin vortex.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɔɹtɛks/

Noun

vortex (plural vortexes or vortices)

1. A whirlwind, whirlpool, or similarly moving matter in the form of a spiral or column.
   • 2013 March 1, Frank Fish, George Lauder, “Not Just Going with the Flow”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 2, page 114:

     An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.

2. (figuratively) Anything that involves constant violent or chaotic activity around some centre.
3. (figuratively) Anything that inevitably draws surrounding things into its current.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 1

     In early youth, the living drama acted around me, drew my heart and soul into its vortex.

4. (historical) A supposed collection of particles of very subtle matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or planet; part of a Cartesian theory accounting for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it.
5. (zoology) Any of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera.

See also

• eddy
• ley line
• maelstrom

References

• vortex in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• vortex in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Noun

vortex m (uncountable)

1. vortex

Etymology

Archaic form of Latin vertex, from vertō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈwor.teks/, [ˈwɔr.tɛks]

Noun

vortex m (genitive vorticis); third declension

1. whirlpool, eddy, vortex

References

• vortex in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• vortex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• vortex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette