See also: arch-pirate

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

arch- +‎ pirate

Noun edit

archpirate (plural archpirates)

  1. A leader of pirates.
    • 1869, William Barnes, Early England and the Saxon-English:
      [] he says a man might deem there were as many archpirates as there were oars.
    • 1873, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire:
      Not improbably those foreign aggressors, as they are naturally styled by the then owners — those archpirates, the host of Lochlinn — were invited to assist in resisting the Roman oppressors by natives who, sooner than submit, had retreated []