flotage

or float·age

[ floh-tij ]

noun

1. an act of floating.
2. the state of floating.
3. floating power; buoyancy.
4. anything that floats; flotsam.
5. the part of a ship above the water line.

flotage

/ ˈfləʊtɪdʒ /

noun

1. the act or state of floating; flotation
2. buoyancy; power or ability to float
3. objects or material that float on the surface of the water; flotsam

Word History and Origins

Origin of flotage¹

1620–30; float + -age; compare French flottage

Example Sentences

But I watched such words come out of my own mother’s and father’s mouths; I looked at their ink drawing of poor people snagging their neighbors’ flotage with long flood hooks and pushing the girl babies on down the river.

From Literature

And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thing reported to us, and on good authority; though people might be found hereafter who would not believe it, unless I told them that from what I myself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it: and this is, that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice, with the aid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth, or where the Holm rocks barred the flotage.

From Project Gutenberg

And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thing reported to us, and on good authority; though people might be found hereafter who would not believe it, unless I told them that from what I myself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it: and this is, that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice, with the aid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth, or where the Holm rocks barred the flotage.

From Project Gutenberg

This "sinker," as the young engineers called it, had been weighed, and it exactly conformed to the requirement of Ethan's figures; it was just sufficient to overcome the flotage power of the cask.

From Project Gutenberg