corsair

WOTD - 25 July 2006    

Spanish ship fighting Corsairs

Corsair fighter

English

Etymology

From French corsaire, from French lettre de course, alternative term for letter of marque.

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkɔːsɛː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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.
5. The F4U Corsair, a World War II fighter aircraft.

Derived terms

• Turkish corsair

Translations

privateersman or pirate

Bulgarian: пират (bg) m., корсар (bg) 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.