eddy

See also: Eddy

WOTD – 9 April 2010

English

Etymology

From Middle English eddy, from Old English edēa, from ed- (“turning, back, reverse”) + ēa (“water”), equivalent to ed- +‎ ea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛd.i/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdi

Noun

eddy (plural eddies)

1. A current of air or water running back, or in an opposite direction to the main current.
   • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

     In the bow old Dobbs fought the stream cunningly, twisting the nose into eddies and backwaters, taking advantage when he could of set of current, and when he could not, paddling doggedly, not so powerfully, perhaps, as his partner, but with equal steadiness.

2. A circular current; a whirlpool.
   • Dryden

     And smiling eddies dimpled on the main.

   • Addison

     Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play.

Related terms

English terms prefixed with ed-

Translations

air or water running in an opposite direction to the main current

• Afrikaans: warrelstrome
• Arabic: دُوَّامَة f (duwwāma)
• Bulgarian: вихър (bg) m (vihǎr), вихрушка (bg) f (vihruška)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 渦流／涡流 (zh) (wōliú), 涡流 (zh) (wōliú)

• Danish: hvirvel c, strømhvirvel c
• Dutch: draaikolk (nl), werveling (nl)
• Finnish: akanvirta (fi)
• French: contre-courant (fr), remou
• Galician: remuíño m
• German: Wirbel (de) m
• Hungarian: bukószél (air)
• Irish: saobhshruth m
• Italian: vortice (it) m, gorgo (it) m, mulinello m, controcorrente (it) f
• Japanese: 渦流 (かりゅう, karyū), 渦 (ja) (うず, uzu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 회오리 (hoe'ori), 소용돌이 (ko) (soyongdori)
• Maori: okori, mumuhau (wind), haupongi (of the wind), kōripo (of water), riporipo (of water), kōmingomingo (of water)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bakevje (no) m or f

• Occitan: remolin (oc)
• Polish: wir (pl) m
• Portuguese: vórtice (pt) m, remoinho (pt) m
• Romanian: contracurent (ro) m, bulboană (ro), volbură (ro) f, vârtej (ro) n
• Russian: завихре́ние (ru) n (zavixrénije), вихрь (ru) m (vixrʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: vrtlog (sh) m, vir (sh) m, protustruja f
• Spanish: contracorriente f, revesa (es) f, remolino (es) m
• Swedish: eda (sv) c (dialectal), strömvirvel c
• Tagalog: uliuli

See also

• countercurrent
• dust devil

Verb

eddy (third-person singular simple present eddies, present participle eddying, simple past and past participle eddied)

1. (intransitive) To form an eddy; to move in, or as if in, an eddy; to move in a circle.
   • Wordsworth

     Eddying round and round they sink.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “25”, in Babbitt:

     Neither in his voiceless cabin, fragrant with planks of new-cut pine, nor along the lake, nor in the sunset clouds which presently eddied behind the lavender-misted mountains, could Babbitt find the spirit of Paul as a reassuring presence.

Anagrams

• dyde, dyed

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Luxembourgish

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French adieu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈædi/

Interjection

eddy

1. Nonstandard spelling of äddi.

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛðɨ̞/
• IPA^(key): /ˈeːði/, /ˈɛði/

Verb

eddy

1. Obsolete form of addawa (“(s/he) promises”).