Legal Definition and Related Resources of Flotsam

goods with no apparent owner and found floating on the sea. These belong to the crown unless claimed within the time prescribed by statute .

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Flotsam in Historical Law

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See also

See jettison (in U.S. law) …. (Read more)

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Flotsam

(You may find flotsam at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

c. 1600, from Anglo-French floteson, from Old French flotaison “a floating” (Modern French flottaison), from floter “to float, set afloat” (of Germanic origin and cognate (having the same ancestor) with float) + -aison, from Latin -ation(em). Spelled flotsen in English till mid-19c. when it altered, perhaps under influence of many English words in -some. Folk-etymologized in dialect as floatsome. In British law, flotsam are goods found floating on the sea as a consequence of a shipwreck or action of wind or waves; jetsam are things cast out of a ship in danger of being wrecked, and afterward washed ashore, or things cast ashore by the sailors. Whatever sinks is lagan. Flotsam and jetsam figuratively for “odds and ends” is attested by 1861.