| 词源 |
corsair. Corsair, which came into English in the late 16th century, was a Spanish word for someone between a pirate and a privateer, while “sea robbers” and “sea rovers” were German and Dutch inventions, also carelessly applied. At any rate, very few of these thieves of the sea were not the hostes humani generi, “enemies of the human race,” that the Roman orator Cicero called all pirates centuries ago—though it is important to note that almost all pirates euphemistically called themselves privateers. |