Talk:float
I think there's another meaning in finance, closely related to the one already noted here. The word is not only used to refer to the price of a security "being regulated by market forces", but also to "bringing a security to the market to become floated", i.e making stocks public, isn't it? I think it is used in this meaning in the Economist's "The World in 2008" on page 122. ML-et 23:40, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
- Sorry, I guess I only read through the intransitive verbs section and this meaning is already noted in the transitive verbs section.ML-et 11:39, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
float like a butterfly , float one's boat
Latin[edit]
In Latin there is fluctuare, origin of Italian fluttuare, translated with the English to float... [1]--2.32.164.95 22:57, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
- First of all, fluctuo isn't a good translation of the primary sense of float,"to be supported by a liquid"- that would probably be fluito. It's closer to the sense "to drift or wander aimlessly", since the idea behind it is being unstable and changing/moving, as in its descendant fluctuate.
- Second, the English word has a continuous history going back to Old English flotian or fleotan, and cognates are found in a great many Germanic languages, with sound changes that show a common inheritance. In order for it to have come from Latin, it would have to have been a very early borrowing into Proto-Germanic. That's unlikely, since a very basic word like this isn't borrowed very often, and there are credible Indo-European cognates such as Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō). Chuck Entz (talk) 00:31, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
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Rfv-sense: A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep. - will be obsolete if anything Roger the Rodger (talk) 23:46, 21 September 2021 (UTC)
- Remark. The definition is seen verbatim in the 1828 Webster, with an attribition to Mortimer (Thomas Mortimer (writer)?), but the sense is not among the 13 listed in the 1911 Century Dictionary. It is a most curious definition. How is this different from “A quantity of earth of eighteen cubic feet”? --Lambiam 08:04, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
- Here is the use by Mortimer (John Mortimer, edited and revised by Thomas Mortimer):
- Of making of banks. They are meaſured by the float or floor, which is eighteen foot ſquare, and one deep, which contains twelve cart load in good mould.
- --Lambiam 08:30, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 21:13, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
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rfv-senses: A device sending a copious stream of water to the heated surface of a bulky object, such as an anvil or die. and A polishing block used in marble working; a runner MooreDoor (talk) 22:23, 24 November 2021 (UTC)
- I managed to cite the polishing block, but could only find one cite for the device that douses the heated object with water (on citations page). Kiwima (talk) 22:06, 27 November 2021 (UTC)
RFV-resolved Kiwima (talk) 20:06, 25 December 2021 (UTC)