Related Searches
on Ask.com
Buccaneer - 5 dictionary results
buc⋅ca⋅neer
[buhk-uh-neer] 
–noun
| 1. | any of the piratical adventurers who raided Spanish colonies and ships along the American coast in the second half of the 17th century. |
| 2. | any pirate. |
Origin:
1655–65; < F boucanier, lit., barbecuer, equiv. to boucan barbecue (< Tupi, var. of mukém) + -ier -eer
1655–65; < F boucanier, lit., barbecuer, equiv. to boucan barbecue (< Tupi, var. of mukém) + -ier -eer
Related forms:
buc⋅ca⋅neer⋅ish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source
|
Link To Buccaneer
| buc·ca·neer (bŭk'ə-nîr') n.
[French boucanier, from boucaner, to cure meat, from boucan, barbecue frame, of Tupian origin; akin to Tupi mukém, rack.] buc'ca·neer' v. Word History: The Errol Flynn-like figure of the buccaneer pillaging the Spanish Main may seem less dashing if we realize that the term buccaneer corresponds to the word barbecuer. The first recorded use of the French word boucanier, which was borrowed into English, referred to a person on the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga who hunted wild oxen and boars and smoked the meat in a barbecue frame known in French as a boucan. This French word came from a Tupi word meaning "a rack used for roasting or for storing things, or a racklike platform supporting a house." The original barbecuers seem to have subsequently adopted a more remunerative way of life, piracy, which accounts for the new meaning given to the word. Buccaneer is recorded first in 1661 in its earlier sense in English; the sense we are familiar with is recorded in 1690. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Buccaneer
Buc`ca*neer"\, n. [F. boucanier, fr. boucaner to smoke or broil meat and fish, to hunt wild beasts for their skins, boucan a smoking place for meat or fish, gridiron for smoking: a word of American origin.] A robber upon the sea; a pirate; -- a term applied especially to the piratical adventurers who made depredations on the Spaniards in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. [Written also bucanier.] Note: Primarily, one who dries and smokes flesh or fish after the manner of the Indians. The name was first given to the French settlers in Hayti or Hispaniola, whose business was to hunt wild cattle and swine.Buccaneer
Buc`ca*neer"\, v. i. To act the part of a buccaneer; to live as a piratical adventurer or sea robber.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : Buccaneer
Spanish:
bucanero,
German:
der Seeräuber,
Japanese:
海賊
buccaneer
1661, from Fr. boucanier "user of a boucan," a native grill for roasting meat (Haitian var. barbacoa, see barbecue), from Tupi mukem (rendered in Port. as moquem c.1587). Originally used of French settlers working as hunters and woodsmen in the Spanish West Indies, a lawless and piratical set after they were driven from their trade by Spanish authorities in the 1690s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
