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Did Pirates Really Go Arrrgh?

© Sharon K. West

A pirate is one of the original terrorists of the world. In fact, terror was just as much a weapon in a pirate's armory as his sword. So just when did the pirate pass from a seafaring, Osama Bin Laden-type of scumbag to the romantic, handsome, swashbuckling hero? More importantly, did they really go "arrrgh?" Let us examine the mystique of the pirate.

The definition of a pirate is one who robs or plunders ships on the sea or targets on shore without a commission from a government or king. Privateers or corsairs were the same as pirates except they had a commission to capture ships belonging to an enemy nation. West Indies pirates were known as buccaneers, which comes from the word boucan, a wooden frame used for cooking meat used by French hunters call boucaniers. Interestingly, the English word, filibuster, has its origins in pirate terminology. Vrijbuiter meaning plunderer in Dutch was corrupted into the English "freebooter" and the French "flibustier." The French word then went back into the English as "filibuster." A filibuster was not a pirate but an adventurous man involved in certain Latin American revolutions and coups. Finally, the meaning evolved into talking without stopping as a disruptive maneuver, taking captive a legislative process.

Of course, all through history, wherever there were people, there were pirates of one type or another. Even Julius Caesar was taken captive by pirates and held for ransom at one point in his life. Irish pirates enslaved Saint Patrick. Vikings were notorious pirates.

Today, however, our present stereotypical image of a pirate is one of THE most recognizable icons in the world. Just where does that come from? The simple answer is that most of what we know as pirate characteristics in our time are the inventions of writers of fiction.

In 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the novel Treasure Island. This is the Holy Grail of pirate depiction. Long John Silver never existed, but he will always linger in our minds as the pirate of pirates. This characterization is complete with one leg and a pet parrot perched on his shoulder. The treasure map with an "X" marking the spot came from this book.

Then in 1950, Robert Newton perfected the stereotypical way of speaking and dressing in the film adaptation of Treasure Island. He was the first to interject those famous growls of "Arrrgh" into pirate conversation.

The following list of items (according to FreeDictionary.com) constitutes the stereotypical pirate dress:

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