Corsair - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CORSAIR (through the Fr. from the Med. Lat. cursarius, a pirate; cursus, or cursa, from currere, to run, being Late Latin for a plundering foray), the name given by the Mediterranean peoples to the privateers of the Barbary coast who plundered the shipping of Christian nations; they were not strictly pirates, as they were commissioned by their respective governments, but the word came to be synonymous, in English, with " pirate." The French word corsaire is still used for privateer," and guerre de course is applied to the use in naval warfare of " commerce-destroyers." (See PIRATE, BARBARY PIRATES and PRIVATEER.)