Saturday, September 19, 2009

ahoy, ye maties

(This be a re-post from last year.)
Arrr, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! That be a rollickin good holiday me thinks!
I be including a list of piratory terms. But first there be a quote from the addled scallywags what started this happy hearty holiday:

Before we go any further, there's something we need to be clear about. Pirates were and are bad people. Really reprehensible. Even the most casual exploration of the history of pirates (and believe us, casual is an accurate description of our research) leaves you hip deep in blood and barbarity. We recognize this, all right? We aren't for one minute suggesting that real, honest-to-God pirates were in any way, shape or form worth emulating.

So what is it exactly that we're celebrating here, if not pirates? What, you're wondering, is the point?

We're going to be painfully honest here, perhaps fatally so.

The point is, there is no point.


And if ye would like to spy the original site for Talk Like a Pirate Day go right ahead with ye. They have a translator and such for the landlubbers among ye. But keep ye in mind that the language be not altogether upstandin.

Ye can also spy the official British HQ site.

Now a wee bit o vocabulary to help ye be piratin on this fine day.

Addled – Insane or Foolish

Ahoy – hello

Avast – hey, or hold fast or stop

Barker – pistol

Belay – stop that or shut up

Bilge – foolish talk

Booty – any form of loot

Brethren of the Coast – The name Pirates used for themselves

Buccaneer – A general term for Caribbean pirates

Cackle fruit – chicken eggs

Cat-o’-nine-tails – a whip with many lashes and used for flogging

Corsair – French name for Pirate

Dance the hempen jig – to hang or be hanged

Davy Jones’ Locker – a place at the bottom of the sea reserved for pirates (dead)

Dead man’s chest – coffin

Feed the fish – to be thrown into the sea dead or alive

Freebooter – another name for pirate

Grog – rum or any other kind of alcohol

Gully – a knife or dagger

Handsomely – quickly or hurry it up

Jack Ketch – the hangman, to “dance the Jack Ketch” meant “to hang”

Jolly Roger – the pirates’ skull and crossbones flag

Kiss the gunners daughter – to be bent over one of the ships cannons and flogged

Oggin – the sea

On the account – the pirate life

Poxy, Poxed – diseased

Rope’s end – another term for flogging

Sea Dog – an experienced seaman

Sea Rat – another name for pirate

Shiver me timbers – an expression of surprise, deriving from a sudden blow to the ship’s planking, probably from a cannonball

Swab – an ordinary seaman who mopped the deck

Sweet trade – another name for piracy

Walk the plank – The short walk to a watery grave

9 comments:

  1. Well Shiver me Timbers, Kay-O! You be quite creative there. This months Your Story contest in Writers Digest is to write 750 story about receiving a box with a pirate-like eyepatch and a note, with no return address....Hmmmm. You've got me thinking!

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  2. Ahoy, Robbie, me fine hearty!
    it be that we used the prompt ye be talkin about in the most fabulous meetin ye missed while ye were lollygaggin about. We be practicin our beginnins we be. Not whole stories mind ye, just beginnins.

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  3. Whenever Bethany comes over, we like to send her home with a booty bag. My SIL still laughs at this because at first he wasn't sure what a booty bag was. He was thinking of a booty as the backside, if you know what I mean.

    She is a bibliofile (means lover of books) and so we load her down with tons of reading material.

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  4. Well, I swan! Is that appropriate :)

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  5. Shiver me timbers! President Busssh allow the government to buy AIG, we be all SOCIALISTS now, Aaarg.

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  6. Fun post. Maybe we all have a little pirate in us. At least you do!

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