The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #162910 Message #3881061
Posted By: DMcG
09-Oct-17 - 04:23 AM
Thread Name: BS: Use of the English language
Subject: RE: BS: Use of the English language
Totally independently of this thread, I got into a discussion with my wife about the differences between pirates and buccaneers (initially: then we threw privateers into the mix).
If you were on the receiving end, it mattered little so they may as well be synomyns for you. And unless you are writing a history book or similar you can still largely regard then as synonyms since the role of licences is not usually relevant to the conversation. Yet even in common use 'buccaneer' contains "Errol Flynn" overtones that pirate does not.