Flotsam is wreckage and goods found floating on the sea. Flotsam on the tide.
It is paired with jetsam, which is what was thrown overboard deliberately. The distinction once decided who owned what, which is why the two words survive together.
1nounflotsamWreckage and goods found floating on the sea.
“The beach was covered in flotsam for a mile after the storm.”
flotsam is wreckage.
The old French is to float. Flotsam is what floats away from the wreck and is found later, miles off.
hooks ontofloat
Anglo-Norman floteson comes from floter, to float.
Latin
-atio
Old French
flotaison — a floating
Anglo-Norman
floteson
English, today
flotsam
Built from
From Anglo-Norman floteson, from Old French flotaison (“a floating”), from floter (“to float”), of Germanic origin (See float.), + -aison, from Latin -atio.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA