privateer

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun an officer or crew member of a privateer
noun a privately owned warship commissioned to prey on the commercial shipping or warships of an enemy nation

From private + -eer probably after volunteer, shortened from the original term "Private Man-of-war".

The seas swept by American privateers! — The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886, Ontario. Department of Education
The privateer, meanwhile, was not losing time. — The Boy Patriot, Edward Sylvester Ellis
Caper, a Dutch privateer of the seventeenth century. — The Pirate: Andrew Lang Edition, Walter Scott

privateersman

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