English
floss
Floss may come from French floche ‘tuft of wool’.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentfloche‘tuft of wool’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2003floss
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentfloche‘tuft of wool’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2003floss
Earliest quotation: 2003, Vladimir Bogdanov, Backbeat Books: “As the label's name no doubt implies, these rappers…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *plewk- ‘hair, fibres, tuft’
fly, flew, fowler, flee, flown, fowl, flay, fogle, 10 more
through Latin floccus ‘piece of wool’
Another origin of floss
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500vlacke‘a flat area, plain’uncertain
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400flacheuncertain
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flosche‘a watery or marshy place, swamp’
- English1500–presentflosh‘a flush, stream of water, sluice’
- Englishtodayfloss
From dialectal flosh (‘a flush, stream of water, sluice’), from Middle English flosche, flusche, flasche, flaske (‘a watery or marshy place, swamp’), perhaps from Old French flache, from Middle Dutch vlacke (‘a flat area, plain’), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *fleutan.
Today it means
noun A thread used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French floche / floss