corsair

English

WOTD – 25 July 2006    

Spanish ship fighting Corsairs

Etymology

From French corsaire.

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkɔːsɛː/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

corsair (plural corsairs)

1. A French privateer, especially from the port of St-Malo
2. A privateer or pirate in general
   • 1840, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, [Chapter 34.]

     "If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, genteel highwayman or patriot -- and they're the same thing," thought Mr. Tappertit, musing among the nine-pins, "I should have been all right. But to drag out a ^[sic] ignoble existence unbeknown to mankind in general -- patience! I will be famous yet."

3. The ship of privateers or pirates, especially of French nationality
4. A nocturnal assassin bug of the genus Rasahus, found in the southern USA.

Wikipedia

Wikispecies

Derived terms

• Turkish corsair

Translations

privateersman or pirate

• Bulgarian: пират (bg) (pirat) m, корсар (bg) (korsar) m
• Catalan: corsari (ca) m, corsària (ca) f
• Czech: korzár (cs) m
• French: pirate (fr), corsaire (fr)

• German: Korsar (de) m
• Japanese: コルセア (korusea)
• Polish: korsarz m
• Russian: корса́р (ru) (korsár) m, пира́т (ru) (pirát) m

pirate ship or privateer

• French: corsaire
• Japanese: 海賊（船）（かいぞく（せん）, kaizoku (sen)）

• Russian: капер m