Etymologically
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flibustier

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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

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)