buccaneer

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A pirate, especially one who attacked Spanish ships in the Caribbean in the 1600s.

   The novel tells the story of a fearless buccaneer sailing the Caribbean.

2. 2
   verb

   To act as a pirate, robbing ships at sea.

   For years they buccaneered along the coast, seizing any ship they could.

Simplified etymology

Buccaneer originally denoted a French hunter of wild cattle in South America or the Caribbean who cooked meat on a wooden frame called a boucan. Boucan came through French from Tupi mukem; later in the 17th century, buccaneer came to mean a pirate of the Spanish American coasts as some of these hunters turned to piracy.

Etymology tree Proto-Tupian *mo- Proto-Tupi-Guarani *mo- Proto-Tupi-Guarani *kaʔẽ Proto-Tupi-Guarani *mokaʔẽ Old Tupi moka'ẽbor. French boucan Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Old French -ier Middle French -er French -ier French boucanierbor. English buccaneer From French boucanier, from boucaner (“to smoke or broil meat and fish, to hunt wild beasts for their skins”), from boucan (“(Tupi-style) grill”), from Old Tupi moka'ẽ, mboka'ẽ (“wooden grill”). By surface analysis, buccan + -eer.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary