Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VOR'TEX, n. [plur. Vortices or Vortexes; L. from verto, Ant. vorto, to turn.]

1. A whirlpool; a whirling or circular motion of water, forming a kind of cavity in the center of the circle, and in some instances, drawing in water or absorbing other things.
2. A whirling of the air; whirlwind. – Cyc.
3. In the Cartesian system, the circular motion originally impressed on the particles of matter, carrying them around their own axes, and around a common center. By mean, of these vortices, Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe.