buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbə-kə-ˈnir 

1

: any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in 17th century West Indies

broadly : pirate

2

: an unscrupulous adventurer especially in politics or business

buccaneer intransitive verb

buccaneerish

ˌbə-kə-ˈnir-ish 

adjective

Synonyms

• corsair
• freebooter
• pirate
• rover

Examples of buccaneer in a Sentence

buccaneers preyed upon treasure-laden ships in the Caribbean for nearly three hundred years

Recent Examples on the Web

Although the swarthy crew has an abundance of muscles and ego, not one of the buccaneers knows how to read. —Jamie Lang, Variety, 20 May 2024

Tampa Bay will wear white jerseys with red numbers, pewter pants and its pewter and red buccaneer helmet. —Detroit Free Press, 20 Jan. 2024

Pitching himself as the enterprising buccaneer as the fledgling airline took on the longstanding national carrier British Airways, Branson was ever-present in the company’s advertising and marketing. —Roger Trapp, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024

English-speaking buccaneers and logwood cutters had established a presence in the British Settlement in the Bay of Honduras, as Belize was then known. —Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

French boucanier woodsman, pirate (in the 17th century West Indies), from boucaner to smoke meat, from boucan wooden frame for smoking meat, from Tupi mokaʔẽ́, mbokaʔẽ́, from mo-, mbo- causative marker + kaʔẽ to be roasted, dried

First Known Use

1686, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbək-ə-ˈni(ə)r 

: pirate entry 1

Etymology

from French boucanier "hunter who smokes meat over a grill"

Word Origin

In the 17th century Frenchmen living off the land in the West Indies were known as boucaniers because they preserved meat by smoking it over a wooden grill. The grill was called a boucan, after the Brazilian Indigenous name for it. When some of these men took to the sea as pirates, the word boucanier continued to be applied to them, and was borrowed into English as buccaneer.