flotsam [E17th] This legal term for wreckage found floating on the sea or washed up on the beach comes ultimately from French, from the verb floter ‘to float’. Flotsam and jetsam [M19th] are useless or discarded objects. Jetsam [LME] came originally from jettison [LME], a term for the deliberate throwing of goods overboard to lighten a ship in distress, which came ultimately from the Latin verb jactare ‘to throw’. In the 15th century it was shortened to give us first the spelling jetson and then jetsam. There are strict legal distinctions made between what you can do with flotsam and with jetsam.