Words Every Pirate Should Know

Used to describe foulness and garbage, the bilge is technically "the lowest internal part of a ship." The sense of the word has been extended, however to all the gross stuff that collects there from small leaks and dead animals and the like. The word is historically a variant of bulge which comes from old French boulge "leather sack."

Buccaneer is a word that is synonymous with pirate. Originally specific to pirates on the Spanish coast, it has expanded to encompass the whole group. The stability of buccaneer in our collective minds probably has a lot to do with the pirate ship in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' stadium that shoots off fake cannons every time the team scores a touchdown. Until a few years ago, their logo even included an image of a pirate with a blade in his teeth.

This verb originally applied to ships and is from a French word which literally translates as "to expose a ship's keel, which means that the ship was turned on its side, a very dangerous situation for those aboard.

Fathom can be both a verb and a noun. The verb is the more common in everyday usage and means "to understand", to get one’s head around. The noun is the pirate definition though, and it is a measurement of depth, roughly equivalent to 6 feet. The connection between the two definitions is that if something is a fathom in depth it is "able to be measured," the way something that is fathomable is "able to be understood."

The keel is the lowest plank of wood on a boat. It is the foundational piece, and the ship depends on it for strength and stability. The phrase "keep an even keel" comes from maintaining a level, horizontal position on a ship, and has been metaphorically extended to mean keeping a calm demeanor and not going from one extreme emotion to another.

Where does the word pirate itself come from? Latin pirata comes from Greek peirates . The Greek is literally “one who attacks,” from peiran “to attack, make a hostile attempt on.”

The word for the front part of a ship, prow, is related to the word element pro which is found in English words like proceed, which literally means "to go on, to go before."

This is a disease many pirates would contract because there was a lack of fresh fruit or other sources of Vitamin C. Scurvy involves swollen and bleeding gums and general weakness. From French scorbut.

The stern is where the steering gear of the ship is located, and the word derives from Old Norse styra, which meant "to guide." The more familiar adjective stern meaning "severe, strict or cruel" is unrelated to this term.