Etymologically
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float

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /fləʊt/, US /floʊt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English floten, inherited from Old English flotian (“to rest on the surface of water”),[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *flutōjanan,[2] cognate with Middle Dutch vlōten, Old Saxon flotōn and Old Norse flota,[2][4][3] and formed from the same base as flēotan (“to flow, float”) (see fleet),[2][4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *pleu- (“to flow”).[3] In Middle English it was reinforced by Old French floter, itself of Germanic origin.[2][4][6] The noun merges flota (“boat, fleet”), flote (“troop, flock”) and flot (“sea”).[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, to rest on the surface of water: 1031, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[2] The noun, the action of floating, is from before 1000.[7]

Semantic evolution

To drift or hover passively is from about 1300,[3] and the noun was used for an attachment that keeps a fishing line afloat from about 1300 and for a raft from the early 14th century.[3] Movement through the air is from the 1630s,[3] and the transitive senses, to make something float (about 1600) and to launch a financial venture (1778), followed.[3] A parade float, from 1888, probably comes from the sense of a flat-bottomed boat (1550s).[3] A soft drink with ice cream floating in it is attested by 1915.[3] A floating rib, not joined in front, is so named by 1802,[3] and the floating of a currency from 1971.[7] In Caithness a float was a strip of ploughed land between two open furrows.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1000 – the action of floating.[7]
  • 1031 – to float (verb).[2]
  • c. 1300 – to drift; a fishing float.[3]
  • 1778 – to float a financial venture.[3]
  • 1888 – a parade float.[3]
  • 1971 – floating a currency.[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To rest on or near the surface of a liquid without sinking; to be buoyant.
  2. To drift or move lightly through air or water.
  3. To move about aimlessly.
  4. To launch a ship; to start a business or offer its shares.
  5. To let the exchange value of a currency vary freely.

Noun

  1. Something that floats, such as a raft, a buoy or the cork of a fishing line.
  2. A decorated vehicle in a parade.
  3. A soft drink with ice cream floating in it.

Word family

  • floatable
  • afloat
  • floatboard
  • floatel
  • floater
  • floatstone
  • floaty
  • flotation

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)