The verb lut- “float” appeared in its unaugmented perfect form lútie “have floated” in a draft of the poem Löa Yucainen from 1958 (CPT/1296). It is clearly based on the root √LUT “float” (VT42/18). It also appeared in the final version of the poem within a longer verb form valutie “have flowed away” (CPT/1298), with a prefix va- “away” likely derived from √WA of the same meaning.
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. lutta- or lutu- “flow, float” under the early root ᴱ√LUTU (QL/57). The verb lut- reappeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, where it was translated “float, sail” (PE16/134). Forms of lut- also appeared in the Oilima Markirya and Earendel poems from around 1930, respectively translated as “leave” and “sailed” (MC/213, 216), the gloss “leave” probably being a loose translation.
Neo-Quenya: The root ᴹ√LUT was glossed “float, swim” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/LUT), so many Neo-Quenya writers use lut- for “swim”, such Helge Fauskanger in his NQNT (NQNT). I would use lut- for “flow” only for something flowing on or within water or some other (possibly metaphorical) substance; for the flowing substance itself I would use other verbs like sirya-. I would also use lut- “sail” only to describe the motion of the ship itself, and for the act of sailing a ship I would use kiryasta-; see that entry for discussion.
A neologism for a “cruise” by Röandil posted on 2023-04-30 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), a frequentative formation based on √LUT “float”, hence more literally “(lit.) floating/sailing about”.