privateersmann.
/ˌprʌɪvᵻˈtɪəzm(ə)n/, U.S. /ˌpraɪvəˈtɪrzm(ə)n/ Originally and chiefly U.S. Now historical.
A member of the crew of a privateer.
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society > travel > travel by water > one who travels by water or sea > sailor > types of sailor > [noun] > privateer or corsair
corsair1549
caper1657
privateer1664
crusal1699
privateersman1706
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > robber > pirate > [noun] > privateer
privateer1664
privateersman1706
1706 Boston News-let. 7 Jan. 2/2 They judge that they kill'd many of the Privateer's men, because they saw several fall and thrown down into their Hold... At parting Capt. Wilson discharge[d] two Great Guns loaded with small Shot, which he supposes did great execution among the Privateers men!
1747 G. G. Beekman Let. 23 June in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) I. 20 Their Barge was also taken up by a mob of Privateers men and put in Goal where it was in Costedy for 7 days when I found means to get it down again.
1779 T. B. Hazard Jrnl. 28 May in Narragansett Hist. Reg. (1882) July 40 The privateersmen took the fish boats.
1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller II. 241 There is but a slight step from the privateersman to the pirate; both fight for the love of plunder.
1866 G. Bancroft Hist. U.S. IX. xviii. 323 An act which described American privateersmen as pirates.
1898 Argosy June 400 Amboy was the headquarters of several bands of American privateersmen.
1934 ‘I. Dinesen’ Seven Gothic Tales 225 The burghers of Aarhus provided the illustrious young privateersman with new iron for his ballast, free of charge.
1980 P. O'Brian Surgeon's Mate i. 9 The more knowing eye of the privateersman saw the deep wounds in her bowsprit and her masts, the mizen fished with capstan-bars.
2002 Amer. Hist. Oct. 34 Most of the Americans at Dartmoor in the spring of 1815 were privateersmen.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1706