corsair

English

WOTD – 25 July 2006

A Spanish ship fighting corsairs

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin cursus

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -ārius

Medieval Latin cursāriusder.

Italian corsarobor.

French corsairebor.

English corsair

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): /kɔːɹsɛəɹ/

• 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. Chapter 34.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:

     "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

• Turkish corsair

Translations

privateersman or pirate

• Bulgarian: пират (bg) m (pirat), корсар m (korsar)
• Catalan: corsari m, corsària f
• Czech: korzár (cs) m
• Estonian: piraat, mereröövel, kaaper, korsaar
• French: pirate (fr), corsaire (fr)
• German: Korsar (de) m
• Hungarian: privatér
• Ido: korsaro (io)
• Italian: corsaro (it) m, pirata (it) m, filibustiere (it) m, bucaniere (it) m
• Japanese: コルセア (korusea)
• Polish: korsarz (pl) m
• Portuguese: corsário (pt) m
• Russian: корса́р (ru) m (korsár), пира́т (ru) m (pirát)
• Spanish: corsario (es) m
• Swedish: korsar (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: قرصان (korsan), ملك (melik)

pirate ship or privateer

• French: corsaire (fr)
• Hungarian: korzár
• Ido: korsaronavo (io)
• Japanese: 海賊（船）（かいぞく（せん）, kaizoku (sen)）
• Portuguese: corsário (pt) m
• Russian: капер (ru) m (kaper)
• Spanish: buque corsario m

Further reading

• corsair on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Assassin bug on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Peiratinae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Reduviidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons