What the buccaneer is a swashbuckler?

Swashbuckling is one of those words that I use without really knowing what it means.

The phrase “a crew of swashbuckling buccaneers” conjures an image in my head of pirates sword-fighting on the deck of a ship. However, when asked for the definition of either ‘buccaneer’ or ‘swashbuckling’, I draw a blank.

The Buccaneer was a Picturesque Fellow (1905)

My best guess is that ‘buccaneer’ is a fancy word for ‘pirate’ — which is half correct.

The word buccaneer comes from the Arawak word ‘buccan’ which is a wooden rack for cooking or smoking meat. In the 16th century, this smoked meat was sold to private sailors who became known as buccaneers.

The difference between a pirate and a buccaneer is that buccaneers were (also) privateers. This meant that they were licensed by the French, British or Dutch government. Privateers were sailors that were given a legal document, called a letter of marque, which prevented them from being accused of piracy.

This was used as a cheap way to fight the Eighty Years’ War with the Spanish, who also occupied some areas of the Caribbean. However many buccaneers did not obey the terms of their licenses and were hard to control, so the practice eventually died out.