corsair

English
WOTD – 25 July 2006
A Spanish ship fighting corsairs

Etymology

Borrowed from French corsaire, from Medieval Latin cursārius (“pirate”), from Latin cursus (“course, a running; plunder, hostile inroad”). Doublet of courser and hussar.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈkɔːɹsɛəɹ/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

corsair (plural corsairs)

  1. A French privateer, especially from the port of Saint-Malo.
  2. A privateer or pirate in general.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pirate
    • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, 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. A Californian market fish (Sebastes rosaceus).

Derived terms

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Further reading
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