Days Corsair Cassique Kawr Sair Noun Pirate Barbary Coast

corsair \KAWR-sair\

noun

1. A pirate, especially formerly of the Barbary Coast.

2. A fast ship used for piracy.

3. (initial capital letter) Military. a gull-winged, propeller-driven fighter plane built for the U.S. Navy in World War II and kept in service into the early 1950s.

[Corsair came to English in the 16th century from the medieval Latin cursus meaning "hostile voyage."]

The cassique of Kiawah is already known to us, and we may well conceive that he bore himself toward the little wife of the famous corsair with all proper kindliness. - William Glimore Simms, The Cassique of Kiawah: A Colonial Romance, 1859

We were five days at sea in the situation I have just described, and the captain entertained hopes of making the desired port in two days more, when a vessel was descried bearing down upon us, which proved to be an Algerine corsair… - Francis Lathom, The Mysterious Freebooter, or The Days of Queen Bess, 1806