filibustero

Spanish

FWOTD – 19 September 2018

Etymology

Borrowed from French flibustier, from Dutch vrijbuiter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /filibusˈteɾo/ [fi.li.β̞usˈt̪e.ɾo]
• Rhymes: -eɾo
• Syllabification: fi‧li‧bus‧te‧ro

Noun

filibustero m (plural filibusteros, feminine filibustera, feminine plural filibusteras)

1. pirate, plunderer, freebooter
   • 2003, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Morgan y los piratas, El Nacional, →ISBN:

     El gobernador inglés de Jamaica concede patente de corso a los filibusteros, principalmente para que ataquen a las colonias españolas: atacan Costa Rica y Tobago.

     The English governor of Jamaica grants the plunderers letter of marque, mainly for them to attack Spanish colonies: they attack Costa Rica and Tobago.

Derived terms

• filibusterismo

Descendants

• → English: filibuster, fillibuster
  • → Chinese: 費力把事拖 / 费力把事拖 (fèilìbǎshìtuō)
  • → Dutch: filibuster
  • → Indonesian: filibuster
• → Tagalog: pilibustero

Further reading

• “filibustero”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025