Note XXVI‑5 — Chapter XXVI · BUCCANEERS AND BUCCANEERING RAIDS. 1518-1664.
Reading edition
'The word flibustier is merely the French mariner's mode of pronouncing the English word freebooter, a name which long preceded that of buccaneer.' Burney's Hist. Bucc., 43. Some authorities derive the term from the Dutch word fluyts, that is to say fly-boats; but, as Burney remarks, it would not readily occur to any one to purchase such craft for corsairs. It is curious to note that the French translator of Esquemelin still adhered to the mispronunciation of the word, '& prirent le nom de Flibustiers, du mot Anglois Flibuster.' Exquemelin, Hist. Flib., i. 20.