Word of the Day for Monday, December 17, 2012

lagan \LAG-uhn\,
noun:
Anything sunk in the sea, but attached to a buoy or the like so that it may be recovered.

But hear what your Grace does not know. In the sea there are three kinds of things: those at the bottom, lagan; those which float, flotsam; those which the sea throws up on the shore, jetsam.
-- Victor Hugo, "The Man Who Laughs"

"Wreck" shall include jetsam, flotsam, lagan, and derelict found in or on the shores of the sea or any tidal water.
-- Harry Newsom, "The Law of Salvage, Towage, and Pilotage"

Lagan is not as well known as its contextual brethren, flotsam and jetsam. The word comes from the Old Norse word lǫgn which meant "a net laid in the sea."

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