flotsam

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   floating wreckage, cargo, or other debris from a ship

   After the storm, pieces of flotsam drifted into the harbor.

2. 2
   noun

   people or things left unwanted or displaced by events

   The station sheltered the human flotsam of the collapsing empire.

Simplified etymology

Flotsam entered English in the early 17th century as a legal term for floating or washed-up wreckage. It comes ultimately from French floter, meaning “to float.”

From Anglo-Norman floteson, 'a floating,' based on Old French floter, 'to float,' with a suffix descended from Latin -atio. In maritime law, flotsam was wreckage found floating after a shipwreck, contrasted with jetsam, material deliberately thrown overboard.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary