Flossies

Flossie is a character in Nathalie Barney's novel "Idylle saphique" (1901). (cf.: "Barney herself contributed a chapter to Idylle Saphique, in which she described reclining at de Pougy's feet in a screened box at the theater, watching Sarah Bernhardt play Hamlet.[16] During intermission Barney, as "Flossie", compares Hamlet's situation with that of women: "What is there for women who feel the passion for action when pitiless Destiny hold them in chains? Destiny made us women at a time when the law of men is the only law that is recognized."[17] She also wrote her own epistolary novel about the affair, Lettres à une Connue (Letters to a Woman I Have Known). Although she failed to find a publisher for the book, and later called it naive and clumsy, it is notable for its discussion of homosexuality, which Barney regarded as natural, comparing it to albinism.[18] "My queerness", she said, "is not a vice, is not deliberate, and harms no one."[19]" - quoted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Barney)

Via Sylvia Beach there is a connection between Nathalie Barney and James Joyce.

Of course, there's German "floss" (flowed), "Floß" (raft) and Wagner's rhinemaiden "Floßhilde" as well.