Flotsam,an old word, used in connection with others equally barbarous, as jetsam and legan (or ligan), to designate different kinds of wrecked goods. Whether lawyers made them, or adopted them from seamen, is not certainly known; but the latter is supposed to be the case. Goods flotsam were goods which floated away when a ship was wrecked. Goods jetsam were those cast over from a ship in peril. Goods legan were goods which were cast out, but, because they would sink and be lost, were tied to wood or a cask or some other substance which would float. These words are now seldom if ever used; but the word jettison, formed probably from jetsam, is often used in insurance law and practice. It means properly the act of casting goods overboard; thus goods are said to be jettisoned, and a loss is said to be by jettison; and more rarely and inaccurately, the goods cast over are called the jettison; as, "the jettison consisted of such and such goods."