corsair

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corsair a privateer, especially one operating along the southern shore of the Mediterranean in the 17th century; the word comes (in the mid 16th century, via French) from medieval Latin cursarius, from cursus ‘a raid, plunder’.

Byron's poem The Corsair (1814) told the story of a pirate chief, Conrad, whose chivalry and courage in the end outweigh his vices; the poem had great popular success.

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