pirate

English

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Pirate

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• pyrate (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta, from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaɪ̯(ə)ɹɪt/, /ˈpaɪ̯(ə)ɹət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

pirate (plural pirates)

1. A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.

   Synonyms: buccaneer, corsair; see also Thesaurus:pirate

   You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates.

2. An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels.
   • 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

     The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig) overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows on either part—

3. (by extension) One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.

   Synonym: bootlegger

   • 2001, unidentified insider, quoted in John Alderman, Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, and the New Pioneers of Music, Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 178:

     And Gnutella, Freenet and other pirate tools will offer plunderings beyond Fanning's fantasies.

   • 2004, David Lubar, Dunk, page 20:

     They had watches that said Gucci or Rolex on them even though it was obvious they'd come straight here from some pirate factory in China.

   • 2008, Martha Vicinus, Caroline Eisner, Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age, page 21:

     If we untangle the claim that technology has turned Johnny Teenager into a pirate, what turns out to be fueling it is the idea that if Johnny Teenager were to share his unauthorized copy with two million of his closest friends the effect on a record company would be pretty similar to the effect of some CD factory's creating two million CDs and selling them cheap.

4. (ornithology) A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
5. A kind of marble in children's games.
   • 1999, Abdelkader Benali, Susan Massotty, Wedding by the Sea, page 60:

     Most of the time it went fine; some of his classmates had so many marbles they could have opened up their own shop in smurfs, pirates, purple aggies and pink panthers.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Niuean: pairēti

Translations

Verb

pirate (third-person singular simple present pirates, present participle pirating, simple past and past participle pirated)

1. (transitive) To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.

   They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.

2. (transitive, copyright law) To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.
   • 1904, Edward Elgar, in a speech on 4 July, 1904:

     If a book is pirated there is a remedy for the author and publisher; if a photograph or an engraving is made of a picture without permission the law protects the painter.

3. (transitive, copyright law) To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.

   Not willing to pay full price for the computer game, Heidi pirated a copy.

   • 2002, John Sayle Watterson, College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy, page 343:

     In the 1970s cable companies began to pirate some of the football games that the networks had contracted to televise.

   • 2004, Wally Wang, Steal this File Sharing Book: What They Won't Tell You about File Sharing:

     College students, with their limited budgets, often pirate software to save their money for buying more important items (like beer).

   • 2007, Diane Kresh, Council on Library, Information Resources, The Whole Digital Library Handbook, page 85:

     Many college students now expect to sample, if not outright pirate, movies, music, software, and TV programs.

4. (intransitive) To engage in piracy.

   He pirated in the Atlantic for years before becoming a privateer for the Queen.

5. (transitive, intransitive, Philippines) To entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own.

Synonyms

• (appropriate by piracy):
• (make illegal copy): plagiarize, counterfeit
• (engage in piracy):

Translations

Adjective

pirate (comparative more pirate, superlative most pirate)

1. Illegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself.

Synonyms

• pirated
• counterfeit

Translations

See also

• Jolly Roger
• skull and crossbones

Anagrams

• eartip, pratie, pteria

Esperanto

Etymology

pirato (“a pirate”, noun) +‎ -e.

Adverb

pirate

1. piratically

Related terms

• pirata (“piratical”)
• pirati (“to pirate”)

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French pirate, borrowed from Latin pīrāta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ʁat/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

pirate m or f by sense (plural pirates)

1. pirate

   Synonyms: boucanier m, corsaire m, flibustier m

Derived terms

Further reading

• “pirate”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• paitre, paître, parité, partie, patrie, prêtai, repait, repaît

Lithuanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (piratè) , (pirãte)

Noun

piratè

1. locative singular of pirãtas (“pirate”)

Noun

pirãte

1. vocative singular of pirãtas (“pirate”)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta, from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”).

Noun

pirate m (plural pirates)

1. (Jersey) pirate

Old French

Etymology

From Latin pīrāta.

Noun

pirate oblique singular, m (oblique plural pirates, nominative singular pirates, nominative plural pirate)

1. pirate (one who attacks watercraft)

Descendants

• Middle French: pirate
  • French: pirate
  • → Dutch: piraat
• Norman: pirate
• → Middle English: pirate
  • English: pirate

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (pirate, supplement)

Spanish

Verb

pirate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of pirar combined with te