Pirate/Seamen Slang

From Pirate Glossary

As with most any job, those who lived and breathed by the sea developed their own lingo, common phrases, and name calling that made them unique and recognizable in a crowd of ordinary folk.

Name Calling

• Bilge Rat - a rat living in the bilge of a ship, the lowliest of creatures according to pirates, therefore it was made an insulting name given by a pirate

• Bucko - a familiar term meaning friend

• Carouser - one who drinks wassail and engages in festivities, especially riotous drinking

• Hands - the crew of the ship

• Hearties - a term of familiar address and fellowship among sailors

• Tar - a sailor

• Knave - a servant boy or dishonorable man. Also a Jack in a deck of cards

• Lad - a way to address a younger male

• Landlubber (or lubber) - a person unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship. It was a term used to insult someone's abilities at sea.

• Lass- a way to address a younger female

• Matey - a way to address someone in a cheerful, if not nessicarily friendly fashion

• Picaroon - a scoundrel

• Scallywag - a villainous or mischevious person

• Rapscallion - a mischevious person, a scoundrel

Phrases

• Ahoy - an interjection to hail a ship or a person, or to attract attention

• Aye (or ay) - yes, an affrimation

• Becalmed - the state of a sailing vessel which cannot move due to lack of wind

• Belay - the secure by winding a rope on a pin. Also to stop, most often used as a command

• Bilged on her anchor - a ship periced by it's own anchor

• Black Spot - a black smudge on a peice of paper. Most often used as a death threat

• Blimey - an exclamation of surprise

• Blow the man down - to kill someone

• Bring a sprig upon her cable - to come around in a different direction

• Careen - to take a ship into shallower water or out of the water altogether to remove barnacles, shells, and plant growth from the bottom. Careening is dangerous to pirates as it leaves the ship inoperable while the work is being done

• Chase - a ship being pursued

• Code of Conduct - a set of rules that rule a pirate's behavior on a ship

• Come about - to bring the ship full way around in the wind. Used in general while sailing into te wind, but also used to indicate a swing back into the enemy in combat

• Crimp - to procure (sailors or soilders) by trickery

• Dance the Hempen Jig - to hang

• Dead men tell no tales - a phrase used by pirates meaning no survivors

• Fire in the hole - a warning issued before a cannon is fired

• Furl - to roll up and secure, especially a ship's sail

• Give no quarter - the refusal to spare lives on an opponent. Red flag is raised.

• To go on account - in short, turning pirate. Going into business for oneself

• Handsomely - quickly or carefully; in ship shape style

• Hang the jib - to frown

• Haul wind - to direct a ship into the wind

• Heave down - to turn a vessel on it's side for cleaning

• Heave to - an interjection, meaning come to a halt.

• Ho - used to express surprise or joy, to urge onward or draw attention to something

• Hornswaggle - to cheat

• Loaded to the gunwalls - to be drunk

• Long clothes - a style of clothing best suited to land

• Letter of marque - A document given to a sailor (privateer) giving him amnesty from piracy laws as long as the ships plunders are of an enemy nation. A large portion of the pirates begin as privateers with this symbol of legitimacy. The earnings of a privateer are significantly better than any of a soldier at sea. Letters of marque aren't always honored, however, even by the government that issues them. Captain Kidd had letters of marque and his own country hanged him anyway.

• Maroon - to abandon a person on a deserted coast with very little supplies. Common punishment becuase the death cannot be traced back

• Mutiny - to rise up against the Captain of the ship

• Meausered for yer chains - to be outfitted for a gibbet cage

• No prey, no pay - common pirate law meaning that a crew recieved no wages, but rather shared whatever was taken

• Overhaul - to slaken a line or to gain upon in a chase. To overtake

• Praley - a conference or discussion between opposing sides during a dispute

• Pillage - to rob by force, especially in a time of war

• Quarter - dericed from the idea of shelter, quarter is given when mercy is offered by pirates. Quarter is often the pirze given to an honorable lose in a pirate fight

• Reef sails - to shorten the sails by partially tying them up, either to slow the ship, or keeping a storng wind from putting to much strain on the masts

• Rope's end - another term for being flogged

• Run a rig - to play a trick

• Run a shot across the bow - command to fire a warning shot

• Sail ho! - an exlaimation meaning another ship is in veiw

• Scupper that - an expression of anger meaning "throw that overboard!"

• Sea legs - the ability to adjust ones' ballance to the motion of a ship, especially in rough waters. After a long voyage, a sailor would have a hard time regaining his 'land legs'

• Show a leg! - an expression used to wake up a sleeping pirate

• Smartly - quickly

• Spike - to render a muzzle loading gun useless by driving a spike into the vent

• Splice the main brace - to have a drink, or perhaps several

• Square rigged - fitted with square sails as the principal sails

• Squiffy - somewhat intoxicated

• Strike colors - to lower, specifically a ships flag as a symbol of surrender

• Swab - to clean the deck of a ship. A disrespectful term

• Swinging the lead - a simple job of measuring the depth near land

• Take a caulk - to take a nap

• Warp - to move a vessel by hauling on a line that is fastened to or around a piling, anchor, or pier.

• Weigh anchor - to haul the acnhor up; leave the port