Bucaneros

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to pirates known for raiding Spanish settlements in the Caribbean during the 17th century
2. A historical designation for privateers and outlaws who engaged in pillaging ships and coastal towns in the Americas
3. A name attributed to those adventurous sea marauders who often operated from the shores of present-day Haiti and surrounding areas

Etymology: The root is the French "boucan," a wooden frame for smoking meat over a fire. It was likely borrowed from a Tupian language of Brazil, possibly through Portuguese or Carib. French-speaking hunters and settlers on Hispaniola who cured wild cattle on these frames came to be called "boucaniers." Many of these men later turned to raiding Spanish ships and settlements, and the name shifted with them. Spanish adopted it as "bucanero," so the word moved from a meat-curer to a sea robber without changing its basic sense of hunting and preparing food. "Bucaneros" is simply the Spanish plural of "bucanero," meaning more than one such raider.

Synonyms: pirates, buccaneers, corsairs, privateers, sea robbers

Antonyms: naval officers, law enforcers, peacekeepers