buc·ca·neer / ˌbəkəˈnir/ • n. hist. a pirate, originally off the Spanish-American coasts. ∎  a daring, adventurous, and sometimes reckless person, esp. in business.ORIGIN: mid 17th cent. (originally denoting European hunters in the Caribbean): from French boucanier, from boucan ‘a frame on which to cook or cure meat,’ from Tupi mukem.

buccaneer †curer of flesh on a barbecue; sear-over. XVII. — F. boucanier, f. boucaner cure flesh on a boucan or barbecue (Tupi mokaém). The sb. and vb. boucan, buccan (from the F. sb. and vb.) appear earlier in XVII. The orig. application was to French and English hunters of oxen and swine in San Domingo and Tortugas.

buccaneer a pirate, originally one operating in the Caribbean. The word is recorded from the mid 17th century, originally denoting European hunters in the Caribbean; it comes ultimately from French boucan ‘a frame on which to cook or cure meat’, from Tupi mukem.