n.
'scum'
(Modern English )This n. is probably best explained as a loan from ON, cp. OIcel flot 'floating, being afloat; lard, dripping' < PGmc *flutan (zero-grade neut. formation on the v. *fleutan- 'to float'), cp. OE flot, MDu vlot 'flow', OHG (masc.) fluz 'current, flow'. This sense is not found for its OE cognate flot ('deep water, the sea'), except in the compound flotsmeoru 'grease, skimmed fat, dripping' which is only attested once (see DOE).
PGmc Ancestor
*flutan
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
flot 'floating, being afloat; lard, dripping'
(ONP flot (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far flot, Icel flot, Norw flot, Dan flod, flåd, Sw flott
OE Cognate
cp. flot 'deep water, the sea' and flotsmeoru 'grease, skimmed fat, dripping'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC3c
(CC4)
This is the only occurrence in ME in this specific sense; MED (which does consider the possibility of loan from ON) groups it with its sense (4b) 'liquid, solution', which it otherwise cites only from a1475 Limn.Bks. (Brog 2.1). OED connects it only with Sc dial float (see EDD) in the same sense.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Cl 1011