▪ I. buccaneer, -ier, n.
(bʌkəˈnɪə(r))
Also 7 buck-, 8 bac-, buc-, buchaneer, 8–9 bucanier.
[a. F. boucanier orig. ‘one who hunts wild oxen’ (Littré), f. boucan a barbecue, boucaner to dry (meat) on a barbecue, to ‘jerk’: see prec. (Not in Cotgr.)]
† 1. orig. One who dries and smokes flesh on a boucan after the manner of the Indians. The name was first ‘given to the French hunters of St. Domingo, who prepared the flesh of the wild oxen and boars in this way’ (E. B. Tylor Early Hist. Man. 261). Obs.
| 1661 Hickeringill Jamaica 43 Not able..to root out a few Buckaneers or Hunting French-men. 1710 J. Taylor Jrnl. 11 There were a great many French Buchaneers there. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., The antient inhabitants of Hispaniola, and the other Caribu islands..consisted of four ranks or orders..viz. buccaneers, or bull hunters, who scoured the woods. 1761 Ann. Reg., Charac. III. 2/2 The Buccaneers lived..on some spots of cleared ground just large enough to..contain their buccaning houses. |
2. (From the habits which these subsequently assumed:) ‘A name given to piratical rovers who formerly infested the Spanish coasts in America’ (Falconer Dict. Marine 1789).
| 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Buckaneers, West-Indian Pirates..also the Rude Rabble in Jamaica. 1693 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 96 To pardon all the buccaneers that will assist in taking Martineco. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1869) 414 Having been an old Planter at Maryland, and a Buccaneer into the Bargain. 1748 Anson Voy. ii. i. (ed. 4) 169 The usual haunt of the buccaneers and privateers. 1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Prov. Mass. i. 86 Bucaniers or pirates..were very numerous. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. note. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. II. 279 A buccaneer or pirate in the Spanish Main. |
| attrib. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xiii. (1840) 228 The captain..gave me some buccaneer words upon it. |
3. By extension: A sea-rover who makes hostile incursions upon the coast, a ‘filibuster’.
| 1846 Arnold Hist. Rome II. xl. 564 To protect the Mamertine buccaneers. 1877 Gladstone Glean. IV. xxiii. 355 Some of the less temperate of our adventurers (I must not call them buccaneers). 1883 Ld. R. Gower Remin. in Glasgow Weekly Her. 15 June 1/4 The poetic vein..was strong in that glorious old buccaneer [Garibaldi]. |
▪ II. buccaneer, v.
(bʌkəˈnɪə(r))
[f. prec. n.]
a. = To buccan. b. To act as a buccaneer: cf. buccaneering vbl. n.
| 1795 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Lousiad ii. Wks. 1812 I. 237 'Twould be a serious matter, we can tell ye, Were we to bucaneer it on your belly. 1828 Southey in Q. Rev. XXXVIII. 233 Warner would certainly.. have been roasted, buccaneered, and eaten..if he had not escaped on board an English vessel. 1853 Blackw. Mag. LXXIII. 493 The Indians took the snake-flesh to dry (buccaneer) it. |