Pirate, privateer, buccaneer, freebooter: do you know the difference?

Often, when referring to piracy, the terms “privateer,” “buccaneer,” and sometimes “freebooter” are used as synonyms for “pirate.” In fact, these terms almost all have different meanings: let’s clarify…

THE PIRATES.

Violent and illegal actions in the nautical sphere are called piracy, and those who carry them out are pirates. The typical profile of the pirate (a very ancient figure. There are examples of pirates in the ancient world with the Shardana or classical among the Greeks and Romans) is that of the sailor who assaults, plunders, and sometimes sinks ships and boats on the high seas, in harbors and rivers. He has no qualms about killing unfortunate crews and does so for profit, often after abandoning his “legal” life on merchant ships (by choice or compulsion). The term “pirate” originates from the Latin pirate, piratæ, which has its counterpart in the Greek πειρατής (peiratès), from πειράω (peiráo) meaning “to attempt” and “to attack.” Many famous pirates had their own flags: HERE we told you the stories behind the most famous of them.

THE CORSARIANS

The difference between pirate and privateer lies simply in the fact that the latter acts within the … legality, if you can call it that. A privateer was a citizen who, armed with written authorization from the government of a state (the so-called “letter of race,” which also determines the origin of the word), could assault and rob the merchant ships of that state’s enemy nations. He was allowed to kill people, but exclusively in combat. Often the letter holder, the shipowner, could remain ashore but the ship could act as a privateer ship. Two of the most famous privateers were Francis Drake and Henry Morgan (both in the service of the British Empire), respectively, in the late 16th and 17th centuries, pillaging Spanish ports in the Americas and attacking galleons loaded with gold and silver bound for Spain.

THE BUCANIERS

People began to talk about “buccaneers” in the late 1600s in the Caribbean. The term comes from the French word “boucanier,” used to refer to poachers who smoked the meat of prey on a wooden griddle (incidentally, this method called barbicoa and from which barbecue is derived, is said to have been taught to buccaneers by the Arawak, a tribe in Santo Domingo). You see how initially the sea has very little to do with it. But the inhabitants of the various Caribbean islands began to use the word to refer to the pirates of the Caribbean (that’s right, you could have called Jack Sparrow a buccaneer, too.) When Alexandre Exquemelin’s book “The Bucaniers of America” came out in 164, the term became in common usage.

THE FILIBUSTIERS.

The filibusters were named after the filibusta, which was an association of privateers and pirates (and later also buccaneers) that arrived from France, the Netherlands, and England operating in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1700s. The filibusters’ attacks were mainly aimed at Spanish coasts and possessions. The Italian word filibustiere has its French counterpart in flibustier, English in filibuster and Spanish in filibustero. Apparently, the name derives from the English buccaneers who were referred to as “freebooters,” or “plunderers.” A name that in turn was derived from the Dutch “vrijbuiter.” While at first buccaneers were distinguished from filibusters because the former were inland pirates, while the latter acted in the Caribbean Sea, later the two terms became synonymous.

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