This week’s theme
Words of nautical origins

This week’s words
copper-bottomed
flotsam
leeway
jetsam
groggy

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(FLOT-suhm)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Goods found floating after a shipwreck.
2. People or things considered useless or unimportant.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French floter (to float). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pleu- (to flow), which is also the source of flow, float, flit, fly, flutter, pulmonary, pneumonia, pluvial, and fletcher. Earliest documented use: 1607.

USAGE:

“Lawrence momentarily regretted having damaged the book, but he didn’t bother picking it up. It could join the collection of flotsam on the floor.”
Cat Sebastian; The Lawrence Browne Affair; Avon; 2017.

See more usage examples of flotsam in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: