word choice - What are "schlieren" in English?


The German word for these patterns is "Schliere, pl. Schlieren", and apparently this word has entered the English language as a loanword (cf. article Schlieren in Wikipedia or entry schliere in OED). But the German loanword is probably not something most native speakers of English understand without the help of a dictionary, so what would you call, or how would you describe, the following patterns?


Concrete:


concrete surface


Air:


Schlieren photograph of air rising from a candle


Oil on water:


oil mixing with water


Coffee and milk:


cream being poured into a cup of coffee


Paint:


liquid paints mixing


Smoke:


plume of smoke


Rock:


striated rock surface


Marbled paper:


marbled paper


And so on.



"Waves" is not applicable, because waves are vertical undulations of the surface, while these are a pattern on, or inside, the surface level, with no amplitude.


"Striæ" does not really fit either, because those refer more to the parallel layers, than to the curly forms.



Answer



A descriptive term for the patterns you illustrate is swirl:



A twisting or spiralling movement or pattern:
she emerged with a swirl of skirts
swirls of colour


ODO




1a : a whirling mass or motion : eddy
b : whirling confusion swirl of events>
2 : a twisting shape, mark, or pattern
3 : an act or instance of swirling


Merriam-Webster.com



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