from early modern Dutch (denoting a mythical whirlpool in the Arctic Ocean, west of Norway), from maalen ‘grind, whirl’ + stroom ‘stream’. It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Hittite mallanzi"they grind;" Armenian malem"I crush, bruise;" Greek mylos"millstone," myle"mill;" Latin molere"to grind," mola"millstone, mill," milium"millet;" Old English melu"meal, flour;" Albanian miel"meal, flour;" Old Church Slavonic meljo, Lithuanian malu, malti"to grind;" Old Church Slavonic mlatu, Russian molotu"hammer. It forms all or part of: amyl; amyloid; blintz; emmer; emolument; immolate; maelstrom; mall; malleable; malleolus; mallet; malleus; maul; meal (n. Hakluyt, 1560s, has Malestrand), name of a famous tidal whirlpool off the northwest coast of Norway, supposed to suck in and destroy everything that approached it at all times (in fact it is not dangerous except under certain conditions), from Danish malstrøm (1673), from older Dutch Maelstrom (modern maalstroom), literally "grinding-stream," from malen"to grind" (from PIE root *mele-"to crush, grind") + stroom"stream" (from PIE root *sreu-"to flow"). melə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to crush, grind," with derivatives referring to ground or crumbling substances and crushing or grinding instruments.

It forms all or part of: amenorrhea; catarrh; diarrhea; gonorrhea; hemorrhoids; maelstrom; rheo-; rheology; rheostat; rheum; rheumatic; rheumatism; rheumatoid; rhinorrhea; rhythm; seborrhea; stream.Maelstrom, a Boston-based thrash metal band active from the late 1980s to the early 1990s that released an LP on Taang! Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit sravati"flows," srotah"stream;" Avestan thraotah-"stream, river," Old Persian rauta"river;" Greek rhein"to flow," rheos"a flowing, stream," rhythmos"rhythm," rhytos"fluid, liquid;" Old Irish sruaim, Irish sruth"stream, river;" Welsh ffrwd"stream;" Old Norse straumr, Old English stream; Lettish strauma"stream, river;" Lithuanian sravėti"to trickle, ooze;" Old Church Slavonic struja"river," o-strovu"island," literally "that which is surrounded by a river;" Polish strumień"brook.