flotsam and jetsam

1. Discarded odds and ends, as in Most of our things have been moved to the new house, but there's still some flotsam and jetsam to sort . [Mid-1800s]

2. Destitute, homeless individuals, as in The mayor was concerned about the flotsam and jetsam of the inner city . [Second half of 1900s] Both words originated in 17th-century sailing terminology. Flotsam literally meant “wreckage or cargo that remains afloat after a ship has sunk.” Jetsam meant “goods thrown overboard from a ship in danger of sinking in order to give it more buoyancy.” Both literal meanings remain current, although the distinction between them is often forgotten.

Example Sentences

While the garden is rooted in local culture, built bit by bit from the flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles locations and plants native to the ecology, the programming is more global in approach.

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The two are among a handful of characters — like Flotsam and Jetsam, the surfer detectives — who reappear in Wambaugh’s work.

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Once those stories start to fray and crumble, though, “The characters are rather like passengers cast from a shipwreck into the sea,” says Oppenheimer, “and they’re desperately reaching for flotsam and jetsam to cobble together a life raft.”

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"It was impossible not to conclude," he later wrote, that for Powell "the struggle was about achieving long-term objectives, not simply a mastery of the flotsam and jetsam of current events".

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Even though Polk was severely injured, Faulkingham said, he was safe and felt God was watching as flotsam and jetsam from his boat was pushed ashore.

Read more on Seattle Times