vortex

See also: vórtex and vòrtex

English

WOTD – 24 August 2006

Etymology

From Latin vortex. Doublet of vertex.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɔɹtɛks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɹtɛks

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^[1], 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.
   • 2004 August 30, Rebecca Mead, “Flip-Flop Emergency”, in The New Yorker‎^[2], page 38:

     It’s hard to imagine that there is any major American clothing brand that does not have a store in the consumer vortex that is East Hampton; […]

3. (figuratively) Anything that inevitably draws surrounding things into its current.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter 1, in The Last Man. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 230675575:

     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.

Derived terms

• admin vortex
• antivortex
• intervortex
• mesovortex
• nanovortex
• nonvortex
• polar vortex
• quantized vortex
• uveovortex
• von Kármán vortex street
• vortexation
• vortex atom
• vortexer
• vortex filament
• vortex fringe
• vortexlike
• vortex line
• vortex mixer
• vortex ring
• vortex theory
• vortex tube

 

Related terms

• vortical
• vorticity

Translations

whirlpool

• Aromanian: viro m, vãltoari f
• Bulgarian: водовъртеж (bg) (vodovǎrtež)
• Catalan: remolí (ca) m, vòrtex
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 渦旋 (zh), 涡旋 (zh) (wōxuán)

• Czech: vír (cs) m
• Dutch: wervelwind (nl), wervel (nl) m, draaikolk (nl) f
• Esperanto: vortico, kirlo
• Finnish: pyörre (fi)
• French: tourbillon (fr)
• Galician: vórtice m, remuíño (gl) m
• Georgian: მორევი (morevi)
• German: Wirbel (de) m
• Greek: δίνη (el) f (díni)
• Icelandic: hringiða (is) f
• Ido: vortico (io)
• Japanese: 渦 (ja) (うず, uzu)
• Korean: 소용돌이 (ko) (soyongdori)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: bagerr (ku) f, babelîsk (ku) f

• Latin: vortex
• Polish: wir (pl) m
• Portuguese: turbilhão (pt) m, redemoinho (pt) m, rodamoinho m, remoinho (pt) m, vórtice (pt) m
• Romanian: vâltoare (ro), vârtej (ro) n, bulboană (ro) f
• Russian: водоворо́т (ru) m (vodovorót), вихрь (ru) m (vixrʹ), воро́нка (ru) f (vorónka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: вир m, вртлог

  Roman: vir (sh) m, vrtlog (sh) m

• Spanish: remolino (es) m
• Ukrainian: ви́хор m (výxor), коло́ворот m (kolóvorot)

anything involving violent or chaotic activity around some centre

• Bulgarian: вихър (bg) m (vihǎr)
• Catalan: remolí (ca) m, vòrtex
• Czech: víření n
• Dutch: draaikolk (nl), wervelwind (nl) m
• Finnish: pyörre (fi)
• Georgian: გრიგალი (grigali), მორევი (morevi)
• Icelandic: hringiða (is) f
• Polish: wir (pl) m
• Portuguese: turbilhão (pt) m, redemoinho (pt) m
• Spanish: vórtice (es)
• Ukrainian: урага́н m (urahán), буреві́й (uk) m (burevíj)

anything which draws surrounding things

• Catalan: remolí (ca) m, vòrtex
• Dutch: maalstroom (nl)
• Finnish: nielu (fi), kita (fi), pyörremyrsky (fi)
• Georgian: მორევი (morevi)
• German: Strudel (de) m
• Icelandic: hringiða (is) f
• Polish: wir (pl) m
• Portuguese: funil (pt) m
• Turkish: girdap (tr)
• Ukrainian: всмо́ктувач m (vsmóktuvač), усмо́ктувач m (usmóktuvač)

See also

• eddy
• ley line
• maelstrom

Verb

vortex (third-person singular simple present vortexes, present participle vortexing, simple past and past participle vortexed)

1. (chemistry) To mix using a vortex mixer

References

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

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French

Etymology

From Latin vortex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɔʁ.tɛks/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

vortex m (uncountable)

1. vortex

Further reading

• “vortex”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯or.teks/, [ˈu̯ɔrt̪ɛks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvor.teks/, [ˈvɔrt̪eks]

Noun

vortex m (genitive vorticis); third declension

1. Archaic form of vertex.

Inflection

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	vortex	vorticēs
Genitive	vorticis	vorticum
Dative	vorticī	vorticibus
Accusative	vorticem	vorticēs
Ablative	vortice	vorticibus
Vocative	vortex	vorticēs

Descendants

Descendants of vortex in other languages

• → English: vortex
• → French: vortex
• → Italian: vortice
• → Portuguese: vórtice, vórtex
• → Sicilian: vòrtici
• → Spanish: vórtice

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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• vortex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French vortex or Latin vortex.

Noun

vortex n (plural vortexuri)

1. vortex

Declension

Declension of vortex

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) vortex	vortexul	(niște) vortexuri	vortexurile
genitive/dative	(unui) vortex	vortexului	(unor) vortexuri	vortexurilor
vocative	vortexule		vortexurilor