Why is "float" a reserved word in JavaScript?

Question

I just found myself writting a variable called float and Sublime Text made it blue, like it would with "document" or "window". Then I tried to write that in Chrome's console and see what it was... but it seems like, at least, it is not a global variable.

What is float in Javascript and why is it a reserved word? May it be for a possible future use?

EDIT: For those downvoting: I found it actually is a reserved word here: http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_reserved.asp

EDIT2: As ES6 is adding real classes to JS, and it seems JS is looking more and more like Java, could it be possible that in the future you'd have to define a variable as Float my_number = 1.1234; ?

Answer 1

Float is NOT reserved in the current ECMAScript (4-5) or in the upcoming version (6), but was in previous specificiations.

The official reason:

Future reserved keywords in older standards

The following are reserved as future keywords by older ECMAScript specifications (ECMAScript 1 till 3).

abstract - boolean - byte - char - double - final - float - goto - int - long - native - short - synchronized - transient - volatile

Additionally, the literals null, true, and false are reserved in ECMAScript for their normal uses.

The entire information can be read here

For those who still don't believe me the float in this jsFiddle is a lie

var float = "definitively not a float";