A Spanish fleet of ships, historically used for transporting goods, treasure, or military forces across oceans.
From Spanish 'flota' (meaning fleet), derived from Latin 'fluctus' (wave) through Vulgar Latin 'flucta'. The Spanish term became English when discussing Spanish naval history.
The 'Spanish Armada' wasn't just one ship but a massive 'flota'—the word reminds us that English borrowed naval vocabulary from Spanish when Spain was the dominant sea power in the 1500s-1600s!
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