From OE 'flēot' (ship), from PIE *plew- (to flow, to float) — literally 'that which floats,' kin to 'float' and 'flood.'
A group of ships sailing together, especially warships under a single command; by extension, any group of vehicles operating together.
From Old English 'flēot' (a ship, a raft; an estuary, a creek), from Proto-Germanic '*fleutą' (that which floats), from the verb '*fleutaną' (to float, to flow), from Proto-Indo-European '*plew-' (to flow, to swim, to float). The original Old English word referred both to individual floating vessels and to bodies of water where they gathered. The collective sense — a group of ships — developed in Middle English, possibly reinforced by Old Norse 'floti' (a fleet, a raft), from the same Germanic root. Key roots: *plew- (Proto-Indo-European: "to flow, to float, to swim").
Fleet Street in London takes its name from the River Fleet, which flowed openly through the city until it was covered over in the eighteenth century. The river's name comes from the same Old English 'flēot' (tidal inlet). Fleet Street became synonymous with British journalism because major newspapers were headquartered there from the 1500s until