piratical
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin pīrāticus + -al,[1] from Ancient Greek πειρᾱτικός (peirātikós); equivalent to pirate + -ical.[2]
Adjective
[edit]piratical (comparative more piratical, superlative most piratical)
- Of, pertaining to, or similar to pirates.
- 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When Frederic Was a Little Lad”, in The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC, page 5:
- A nursery-maid is never afraid of what you people call work,
So I made up my mind to go as a kind of piratical maid-of-all-work;
- 2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian[2]:
- He looks piratical, with his beard and long hair and single pearl earring, or like a jumble-sale 17th century nobleman.
- (ornithology) Of a bird, practising kleptoparasitism.
References
[edit]- ^ “piratical, adj.”, in OED Online
[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000, archived from the original on 2023-10-07.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “piratical (adj.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
