Your OED word for today is: picaroon, n.1 and adj. picaroon, n.1 and adj. [‘ A pirate or privateer. Also fig. Now chiefly hist.’] Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌpɪkəˈruːn/, U.S. /ˌpɪkəˈrun/ Forms: 16 picaroone, 16 picaroune, 16 piccaroune, 16 piceron, 16 piceroone, 16 picharoon, 16 picheron, 16 pickeron, 16 piqueroon, 16–17 piceroon, 16– picaroon, 16– piccaroon, 16– pickaroon, 16– picquaroon, 16– piquaroon, 17 pickeroon. Etymology:Probably a transferred use of Spanish picarón rogue, scoundrel (1592 or earlier) < pícaro picaro n. + -on -oon suffix. Senses A. 1a, A. 2a, and A. 2b are not paralleled in Spanish. A. n.1 1. a. A pirate or privateer. Also fig. Now chiefly hist. 1624 J. Smith Gen. Hist. Virginia v. 184 Meeting a French Piccaroune..hee..tooke from them what hee liked. c1681 E. Hickeringill Trimmer in Wks. (1716) I. 355 A Letter of Mart against the Common-Piqueroon of all good Mens Reputations. 1700 S. L. tr. C. Fryke Two Voy. E. Indies 191 The Streight of Sunda was very much infested with Pickaroons. 1790 J. P. Kemble Love in Many Masks iii. v. 40 How is this! a picaroon going to board my frigate!—Draw, Sir—heres one chase gun for you. 1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller II. 242 Somewhat of a trader, something more of a smuggler, with a considerable dash of the pickaroon. 1881 W. Wallace in Academy 15 Oct. 289 A crew of social picaroons. 1911 Indiana Progress 11 Oct. 5/2 Tripoli is a country that has never figured largely in the annals of modern times save as a haunt of pirates and picaroons. 1976 W. Warner Beautiful Swimmers iv. 66 The bargemen came to be known as picaroons, a venerable term of Caribbean origin synonymous with privateer. 1996 Observer 3 Mar. (Life Suppl.) 47/3 In certain latitudes, the crew had stood day and night anti-pirate watches, fire hoses primed and ready to repel the picaroons. b. A thief or outlaw; a rogue, a scoundrel. Cf. picaro n. Now chiefly arch. and hist. Sometimes formerly used playfully, as a term of endearment. 1629 J. Wadsworth Eng. Spanish Pilgrime viii. 85, I answered, that he looked like a Picheron. 1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ iii. xxix. 102 Your Diamond hatband which the Picaroon snatched from you in the coach. 1684 T. Otway Atheist ii. 11 Are you there indeed, my little Picaroon? 1748 S. Richardson Clarissa IV. xvi. 73 Thou who art worse than a pickeroon in love. 1787 J. Whitaker Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated III. 207 This gang of political picaroons was actually afraid of one another. 1821 Scott Kenilworth II. viii. 209, I see in thy countenance something of the pedlar—something of the picaroon. 1836 G. Almar Rovers Bride ii. i. 31 Deid. Money or food! Law. Off, Picaroon! 1926 S. OCasey Plough & Stars iv, in Sel. Plays (1954) 253 Th sliddherin ways of a pair o picaroons, whisperin, concurrin, concoctin, an conspirin together to [etc.]. 1938 Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Northwestern 10 Dec. 7/1 The steam-roller of conformity has been ironing us all out—respectable citizens as well as picaroons. 1998 L. Bellamy Commerce, Morality & 18th-Cent. Novel v. 120 Unlike the picaroons of Fielding and Smollett, the inhuman characters are devoid of volition. 2. a. A small ship of a kind used by pirates. In later use also occas.: a small fishing boat. Now chiefly hist. 1625 in S. R. Gardiner Documents Impeachm. Duke of Buckingham (1889) 11 Theis Picaroones..will ever lye hankering upon our coaste. 1658 R. Haddock in Camden Soc. Misc. (1881) 5 Heere escaped out a small pickeron of 4 or 6 guns. 1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 385 A small Picaroon of a Sloop kept them Company in spight of all they could do. 1775 T. Jefferson Let. 10 Dec. in Papers (1950) I. 270 Montgomery had proceeded in quest of Carleton and his small fleet of 11. pickeroons. 1847 H. W. Herbert Tales Spanish Seas i. 8 After a little while, the skiff came to under the lee of the three-masted picaroon, and nothing more was seen by the excited Spaniards. 1885 Daily Tel. 21 May 5/3 Strong exception is taken by the advocates of privateering to such words as corsair, picaroon, and the like being applied to a vessel armed with the authority of a letter of marque. 1910 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times (Electronic text) 18 June, One [ship] was a merchantman, the other a Spanish picaroon. 2004 Times (Nexis) 20 Feb. (Features section) 22 They are caught only off Cornwall..by a guy near Padstow—in a tiny boat called a picaroon. †b. A slave ship. Cf. barracoon n. Obs. rare. 1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 23 Then said the souls of the slaves that men threw overboard: ‘Kennelled in the picaroon a weary band were we.’ B. adj. (attrib.). That is a picaroon (esp. in senses A. 1a and A. 1b); piratical, buccaneering; roguish. 1747 H. Laurens Let. 24 June in Papers (1968) I. 11 Our Coast has..been grosly insulted by two or three Piccaroon Privateers. 1858 Athenæum 1 May 556 What was the end of this picaroon woman? 1976 Minneapolis Tribune 10–d/3 Dour Methodist watermen whose picaroon ancestors once troubled the peace of the Chesapeake Bay. 1994 H. Bloom Western Canon ii. v. 141 Critics generally agree that the contrast between Ginés and the Don, picaroon trickster and chivalric visionary, is partly an opposition of two literary genres, the picaresque and the novel. Derivatives ˌpicaˈroon-like adj. rare 1889 A. Conan Doyle Micah Clarke xxii. 224 That lean, rakish, long-sparred, picaroon-like craft.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 17:32:15 +0000
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