flibustier

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fli.bys.tje/^[1]

Forms

flibustier m (plural flibustiers)^[1] Fribustier (1667, still in Furetière 1690), flibutier, flibustier (from 1666–1680); the s, first only written, came to be pronounced in the early 18th century.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English flibutor (late 16th century), also “frebetter”, modern freebooter, taken over in the Antilles,^{[2][3][5][6][7]} itself from Dutch vrijbuiter (“plunderer”), literally “one who takes booty freely”, from vrij (“free”) and buit (“booty”).^{[3][5][8][1][9][10]} Bloch and Wartburg and Wiktionary take the French word straight from Dutch, the English “flibutor” being attested only once.^[4][1] The change of “fr-” to “fl-” may be due to flibot, a small ship, from Dutch vlieboot.^{[2][4][1][11]} Compare Old Liégeois “vributeur” “highwayman” and German Freibeuter.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A memoir on Saint-Domingue by J. Clodoré (1666) uses it for a privateer of the American islands.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The flibustiers were the pirates who raided the coasts and the Spanish possessions of America in the 17th and 18th centuries^[3][6]; flibuste (about 1642, fribuste) is their piracy and their community.^[3][6] The word is also an adjective (1722, barque flibustière).^[2][3]

By extension it meant a highwayman (1756, Voltaire) and, weakened, a swindler (1828, Vidocq), a sense now dated.^[2][3][6] Flibuster (1701) “to plunder” survives only as a familiar, dated “to swindle” (1845).^[3][4] English filibuster comes from the French word.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1642 – Fribuste, piracy.^[3]
• 1666 – Flibustier, a privateer of the Antilles.^[2][3]
• 1667 – Fribustier (Du Tertre).^[4][8]
• 1701 – Flibuster.^[3][4]
• 1718 – First recorded by the Académie.^[2]
• 1756 – A highwayman (Voltaire).^[2][3]
• 1828 – A swindler (Vidocq).^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A freebooter, a pirate of the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries; a buccaneer.^[6][11]
2. (dated) A swindler, a crook.^[6][8]

Word family

• flibuster

Related words

• boucanier
• corsaire
• English filibuster

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 436b
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)