What’s in a name? A short story about the origins of the word “buccaneer”

As Americans wake up this morning and begin to prepare for tonight’s Super Bowl 55 pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, many will spend the day preparing food for the big game. In addition to chips, salsa and other snacks, great care will be given to preparing delicious meats in our smokers and grills. For this Super Bowl featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, such a practice could not be more fitting…

Throughout the 1600s, the struggle of dominion over the Caribbean played out on the tiny island of Tortuga, located just north of Hispaniola (what is now modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

In the 1660s, a group of “ruffians” assisted the French in regaining Tortuga from the Spanish and English. These “ruffians” were to become known as “buccaneers.”

Tortuga

When the Spaniards settled in the West Indies, they set “beeves [cattle] and hogs a shore on every island they espied, which increased mightily and those places where they have a constant summer, and the grass alwayes plentiful.”

Hunters throughout the Caribbean, including Tortuga, sustained themselves on these cattle and pigs, employing indigenous methods for preserving the meat over time.

The Arawaks, a tribe indigenous to Hisponiala and Tortuga, perfected the following method: Fresh meat (cattle, pig, fish or even manatee), usually pre-salted, was laid to be dried upon a wooden grate (which they called a “barbecu”), and placed at a good distance over a slow fire. The meat when cured was called “boucan”, and eventually the same name was attributed to the latticed grill on which it slowly cooked.

From adopting the “boucan” of the Arawaks, the ruffian hunters in Hispaniola came to be called “Boucaniers,” later anglicised by William Dampier as the “Buccaneers.”

Ships from all parts of the West Indies frequented Tortuga, leaving sailors to live and hunt on the island and picking-up the Buccaneer landsman for sea voyages. The two occupations of hunting and cruising became so common that “Buccaneer” was later used more often to describe those sea-roving pirates more than the land-based hunters.

So, as you celebrate tonight’s “big game” with grilled hamburgers, steaks or pulled pork, tip your hat (or your fork) to the Arawaks and to the brethren of the coast, the buccaneers.