Note: This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Words from Hell: Unearthing the darkest secrets of English etymology (Chambers, 2023).
In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, let’s explore the origins of a few piratey terms—albeit fictional ones, in many cases.
Many of the terms and phrases we associate with pirates were not recorded during the Golden Age of Piracy, which extends roughly from the 1650s through the 1730s or 1750s, depending on your historian of choice. Rather, the way we imagine pirates talking is a result of writers like Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–95), author of Treasure Island (1883).
From there, film adaptations further cemented the “pirate accent” and related terms. Notably, the 1950 adaptation of Treasure Island featured Robert Newton as Long John Silver, who played up his Cornish accent and added features like the iconic “arrr.”
The word “pirate” itself is originally from the Greek word for a pirate, peiratēs, which literally means “one who attacks.”
Before this word entered English, the Old English term for a pirate was a sæsceaða, or “sea-scather,” and a pirate ship was called a ðeofscip, or “thief-ship.”
Read on to discover the origins of additional terms commonly associated with pirates—whether they ever truly spoke them or not.
Ahoy
This word is just a sound similar to “ho!” or “hey!” for getting someone’s attention from a long distance. The full, original greeting was likely longer: “Ho, the ship, ahoy!”
Incidentally, the Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) preferred this term as the standard telephone greeting, another instance in which one hailed folk from afar. It was his American rival Thomas Edison (1847–1931) who recommended (and in the process coined) the word “hello” as an alternative, a variation on the earlier word “hallo!” or “hollo!,” also long-distance greetings.
(And yes, that does mean that no one used the word “hello” in typical conversation prior to the invention of the telephone, with most people instead favoring greetings such as “good day/morning/evening.”)
Avast!
Although “Avast!” has lost its specificity in recent centuries, it is from the Golden Age of Pirates. This nautical interjection means “hold fast” and may have been inspired by the Dutch term of the same meaning, houd vast.
Buccaneer (and Privateer)
The swashbuckling pirate type we call a “buccaneer” literally means “one who cures or roasts meat on a boucan,” which was a type of grill used by the Tupi people, who were native to what is now Brazil and whose language blended with European languages during the Golden Age of Pirates.
The ending of the word “privateer” follows in buccaneer’s footsteps and first referred to a privately owned armed ship and shortly thereafter came to refer to the sailors on it.
Landlubber
The “lubber” portion of this word isn’t a weird pronunciation of “lover,” but is instead an insult referring to someone who is large, clumsy, unintelligent, and idle. Originally thought to be a Scandinavian term, early variations in English included lobre and lobi, both of which more or less meant “lazy lout.” Although “lubber” was frequently used by sailors, one didn’t lazily “lub” on land exclusively—a lazy monk might be an “abbey lubber.”
The word also appears in terms such “lubberwort,” a fictional laziness-inducing plant, and “lubberland,” a mythical land of pleasant idleness akin to the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Shiver (Me Timbers)
The word “shiver” originally referred to a small piece, fragment, or splinter of something, or to the act of breaking something into many small pieces. Hence, “shiver my/me timbers” refers to the splintering of wooden ships upon rough seas.
Thus you’ll notice “shiver’s” relation to the contemporary word “shiv,” an often-makeshift razor or knife used as a weapon.
The trembly sense of “shiver” possibly comes from an entirely different origin. Arising around 1400 as an alteration of chiveren (“shake”), it may come from the Old English ceafl, meaning “jaw,” suggesting chattering teeth.
“Shiver me/my timbers” is a fictional cry that likely arose after the Golden Age of Pirates. However, the phrase can be found in print as early as 1795, in a serial publication called Tomahawk, or Censor General:
“Peace? Shiver my timbers! what a noise ye make – ye seem to be fonder of peace than ye be of quiet.”
And naturally, the phrase was widely popularized by Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
“So,” said he, “here’s Jim Hawkins, shiver my timbers! Dropped in, like, eh? Well, come, I take that friendly.”
“My timbers!” alone, however, was supposedly an actual nautical oath that was euphemistic in nature, as so many idioms are.
Swashbuckler
Although “swashbuckler” is from the appropriate era, it wasn’t specifically associated with seafarers initially. In the 1500s it meant any swaggery fighter who carried a sword (with the word “swash” referring to the heavy blow of a weapon) and a shield, or buckler. Basically, it was poking fun at shouty types who made their whole identity about combat.
Read more: The Etymology of “Scalawag”
Read more in Words from Hell.
