pirate | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

31 entries found.

pertaining to the monstrous race in Irish mythology, 1876, from Irish fomor "pirate, monster," from fo "under" + mor "sea." Cognate with Gaelic famhair.

sea-dog (n.)

1590s, "harbor seal," from sea + dog (n.). Also "pirate" (1650s). Meaning "old seaman, sailor who has been long afloat" is attested by 1823. In Middle English sea-hound was used of the walrus and the beaver.

blackjack (n.)

used in various senses since 16c., earliest is possibly "tar-coated leather jug for beer" (1590s), from black (adj.) + jack in any of its many slang meanings. From 1867 as "pirate flag." The hand-weapon so called from 1889; the card game by 1900.

busking (n.)

1851, a slang word, defined variously in Mayhew as selling articles or obscene ballads in public houses, playing music on the streets, or performing as a sort of informal stand-up comedy act in pubs, perhaps from an earlier word meaning "to cruise as a pirate" (see busker).

Easter Island

so called because it was discovered by Dutch navigator Jakob Roggeveen on April 2, 1722, which was Easter Monday. It earlier had been visited by English pirate Edward Davis (1695), but he neglected to name it. The native Polynesian name is Mata-kite-ran "Eyes that Watch the Stars."

anorak (n.)

Eskimo's waterproof, hooded jacket, 1924, from Greenland Eskimo anoraq. Applied to Western imitations of this garment from 1930s. In British slang, "socially inept person" (Partridge associates it with a fondness for left-wing politics and pirate radio), by 1983, on the notion that that sort of person typically wears this sort of coat.

hussar (n.)

"light-cavalryman," 1530s, from German Husar, from Hungarian huszár "light horseman," originally "freebooter," from Old Serbian husar, variant of kursar "pirate," from Italian corsaro (see corsair). The original Hussars were bodies of light horsemen organized in Hungary late 15c., famed for activity and courage and elaborate semi-oriental dress. They were widely imitated elsewhere in Europe, hence the spread of the name.

yacht (n.)

1550s, yeaghe "a light, fast-sailing ship," from Norwegian jaght or early Dutch jaght, both from Middle Low German jacht, shortened form of jachtschip "fast pirate ship," literally "ship for chasing," from jacht "chase," from jagen "to chase, hunt," from Old High German jagon, from Proto-Germanic *yago-, from PIE root *yek- (2) "to hunt" (source also of Hittite ekt- "hunting net"). Related: Yachting; yachtsman.

busker (n.)

"itinerant entertainer," 1857, from busk (v.) "to offer goods for sale only in bars and taprooms," 1851 (in Mayhew), which is perhaps from busk "to cruise as a pirate," which was used in a figurative sense by 1841, in reference to people living shiftless and peripatetic lives; compare the nautical sense of busk (v.). Busker has been mistakenly derived from buskin in the stage sense.

Brenda

fem. proper name, Scottish (introduced to a wider English audience in Scott's "The Pirate," 1822), from Old Norse brandr, literally "sword" or torch" (see brand (n.)). Little-used as a given name in U.S. before 1925, but a top-30 name for girls born there 1944-1966: The popular "Brenda Starr" newspaper comic strip debuted in 1940.

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