One picture holds this whole word: water turning in a huge circle, with the middle sinking. It is not just moving water. It pulls. Anything that comes near the edge is drawn round and round, and then down. A person watching from a boat can see the shape of it but cannot fight it. Every other use of maelstrom keeps that same pull — rain and dust spun round in the air, a storm churning the sea, and finally a situation that catches a person and turns them until they cannot tell which way is out.
From the word’s history
The word came into English from early modern Dutch maelstrom, from malen (to whirl around; to grind) plus stroom (stream, current). It was first the name of a giant whirlpool off the coast of Norway, most likely the tidal system at Moskstraumen in Lofoten, which sailors said destroyed any ship that came close.
這個字從近代早期荷蘭文 maelstrom 進入英文：malen 是「打轉、磨」，stroom 是「水流」，字面就是「打轉的水流」。它最早是挪威外海一個巨大漩渦的名字，很可能就是羅弗敦群島的 Moskstraumen 潮流，傳說中靠近的船都會被毀掉。所以「巨大又危險」不是後來加上去的語氣，本來就在這個名字裡。
Wiktionary entry for maelstrom (etymology text supplied in this batch's evidence packet, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:686093835:27107)
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