An archaic or dialectal form of 'float'; to stay on the surface of water or a fleet of ships.
From Old English 'flotan' (to float), derived from Old Norse 'flota' (fleet). This spelling appears in Middle English texts and survives in some dialects.
Words like 'flote' show that medieval spellings were genuinely different—a scribe writing in 1400 might use 'flote,' 'float,' or 'flot' interchangeably before spelling was standardized!
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