Pirates Bonus: Talk Like A Pirate Day

Every year on September 19, people worldwide join together to talk like pirates. Parents, children, co-workers. If you’ve ever wondered how International Talk Like A Pirate Day started or how to speak like a swashbuckler, then this episode is for you. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey folks, Aaron here. I know we're only about halfway
through this season's exploration of pirates, but today is a
perfect reason for a special bonus episode. Why? Because it's
international talk like a pirate day. If you've ever watched
a pirate themed movie or Television Show, you might have
noticed one of the most distinctive features of the pirate
culture their speech. But, as everyone knows, there's more to

(00:28):
a cultural or regional dialect than a unique accent. There's
also the vocabulary itself. So today I want to pause
our journey across the high seas and focus on those
amazing words and phrases that are scattered throughout the history
of pirates. This episode is going to be a little
bit story and a little bit dictionary. Either way, the

(00:48):
information is guaranteed to be Quirky and fun. So if
you're ready, let's set sail. I'm Aaron Manky, and let's
learn to talk like a pirate. No one wants to
look like a land lover today, so I'm here to
help you navigate some fun words and phrases we've associated

(01:10):
with the rogues of the sea. After all, our season
on pirates wouldn't be complete without addressing the history behind
pirate lingo, from argue to hornswoggle. First, though, a little
history on how talk like a pirate day came to
be in the first place, because that's what we do
here at Grimm and mild. We talked about history. Friends
John Bauer and mark summer started with some good natured

(01:32):
kidding as they played a game of racketball back on
June six the pair frequently found themselves saying are in
frustration whenever they missed a shot. Before long, they began
using other pirates speak during their games. They even adopted
pirate nicknames. Bauer became Old Chum Buckets, and summers called
himself captain slappy. The two had so much fun that

(01:54):
they decided to declare the day talk like a pirate day. Unfortunately,
that date was also D day. Out of respect for
the day that allied troops arrived at Normandy to fight
Nazi Germany, the friends thought of shifting the day to
another date, September nine. It was a day with unusual
significance too. You see, it was the birthday of summer's
ex wife. He claimed that he harbored no ill will

(02:16):
toward her. In response, she declared that she had never
been more proud to be his ex. Bauer and Summers
promoted the day to everyone they knew, and as much
fun as friends and family had calling each other Scali
wags and laughing over words like cackle fruit, the idea
never really took off the way the men had hoped.
So in two thousand two the pair turned to humor

(02:37):
columnists Dave Berry for help. The idea delighted Barry and
he happily wrote about the holiday and the rest, as
they say, is history. Over the years the holiday has
attracted some unconventional fans with their own sense of humor.
Bobby Henderson, a self proclaimed pastafarian who established the Corky
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, loved the idea of

(02:59):
talk like a pie day. He and fellow Postafarians had
joked that the lack of pirates caused global warming and
fully embraced celebrating the day. In two thousand twelve, Lake worth,
Florida mayor, Pam Triolo, made a lighthearted request for her
constituents to embrace talk like a pirate day festivities, citing
that the city shared a few swashbuckling, high spirited traits

(03:21):
associated with pirates. Others didn't find her fun loving nature appropriate, though.
Joanne golden of former commissioner, claimed such an association with
murderous seamen was highly offensive. Since Barry's post promoting the holiday,
talk like a Pirate Day has become an international success.
In two thousand thirteen, Michigan made the dates an official holiday.

(03:44):
Even President Obama is said to have celebrated the holiday
while at the White House, and it's even been celebrated
in space. During an interview, Summers claimed that the astronauts
aboard the International Space Station Awoke on the morning of
September nineteen to a pirate's life. For me, the crew
of astronauts spent the day adding a little pirate speak
to their vocabulary. Of course, the Internet is full of

(04:06):
translators and definitions, and facebook joined in on the festivities,
allowing users to change their profile to include pirates speak
for the day. There's even a song about the holiday
written by Pirate Fan Tom Smith. It's a fun day
for sure, but it might leave you wondering what specific
phrases and words really mean, and you might wonder if
pirates actually talked like pirates. Well, yes and no, but

(04:31):
for that we have to start in Hollywood. In nineteen
fifty an actor named Robert Newton played the pirate long
John Silver in the screen adaptation of Treasure Island. Four
years later he reprised that role in a film called

(04:51):
Long John Silver. His use of exaggerated RS, as well
as having a talking parrot for a sidekick, became synonymous
with pirates in the public eye. Newton, you see, was
born in dorsets and began his acting career in London's
west end and brought a variation of his West country
accent to the screen where he portrayed pirates long John
Silver and even later on, blackbeard. Many real pirates came

(05:15):
from working class England and Newton's accents may have actually
been reasonably close to how pirates spoke during the golden
age of piracy. The working class in the region often
replaced words like is and are with the word be
and said are in place of Yes. Other pirates, though,
hailed from Scotland and Ireland, which would have had their
own dialects. Linguists theorized that some pirate crews may have

(05:38):
created a variation on a couple of words to better
communicate with their diverse shipmates. It's speculative, since pirates didn't
keep a lot of records and we're mostly uneducated. Those
who could read and write probably wrote and spoke more
like traditional sailors and merchants. But historians and linguists agree
that few, if any, pirates used words that Newton portrayed

(05:59):
in his calls. So what's real pirates speak and what isn't?
When we envisioned pirates, we think of them raiding ships,
fighting with swords and other acts of violence. Did Pirates
say booty? Sure thing, this one is real, taken from
medieval times in Germany, from a word that meant the
distribution or sharing of stolen goods in battle. We've often

(06:21):
heard the phrase give no quarter. It's the opposite of
what pirates called showing mercy or offering shelter in the
ship's living quarters. A Red Flag signified that no quarter
would be given and the hopes that the targeted crew
would simply surrender without a fight. And of course, we
can't talk about pirates without the word savvy and pirate lingo,
savvy is used to ask if someone understands what the

(06:43):
speaker said. Savvy dates back to and comes from the
Portuguese word Sabe, meaning to know. And then, of course,
there's the famous dead men tell no tales. The phrases
pretty self explanatory. However, it's unclear if the words originated
with pirates or if they even said them at all. And,
as we know, pirates were often hanged for their crimes,

(07:05):
and there are a few terms for that punishment. In
a decade between seventeen sixteen and Seventeen Twenty six, they
referred to hanging as dancing the hemp and Jig, and
before that pirates simply called it the short drop. The
hempen halter refers to the noose usually made from hemp fibers.
Jack Ketch is an English term referring to an executioner,

(07:25):
a nickname that was taken from an actual executioner, by
the way, who served under King Charles the second. Oh
and walking the plank seems to be the quintessential punishment
aboard pirate ships, doesn't it? But while it wasn't unheard of,
it also wasn't as common as we think. Hollywood has
played this one up. Pirates were honestly much more likely
to just Maroon someone as a form of punishment, which,

(07:47):
if I'm honest, really puts a new spin on that
classic old phrase, the Desert Island wish list. Of course,
when we think of pirates we also think of rum
and all those wild parties, and that's where we get
the phrase clap of thunder. It's a particularly strong drink,

(08:10):
although the origin isn't known. Then there's the word Squiffy,
meaning someone who is really drunk. Following the same theme,
there's also three sheets to the wind, which has been
traced back to the mid nineteenth century. What about Yo
Ho Ho? Sadly, pirates never said this. It comes from
a song in Robert Louis Stevenson's three novel treasure island.

(08:30):
In the book, the pirates sing about rum and a
dead man's chest. That chest, by the way, is an island,
not a treasure and while pirates singing Yo Ho Ho
is fictional, that island is real. Today it's called dead
chest island and it's located in the British Virgin Islands. Now,
folklore teaches us that Edward Teach, a k a blackbeard,

(08:50):
Maroon to crew who attempted mutiny on dead chest island.
The Island is less than hospitable, with high clips, no
fresh water and the only wildlife consisting of Pelicans and snakes.
I think it's clear why that would be quite the punishment.
In the story, blackbeard gave each man a cutlass and
a bottle of rum, and then he left, feeling certain
that the men would kill each other off. When he

(09:12):
returned a month later, though, he found them all alive.
Now one of the most iconic words on talk like
a pirate day is going to be Ahoy. Oddly, the
greeting was once the preferred way to answer the phone,
thanks to Alexander Graham Bell. The word comes from the
Dutch word Hoy, which means hello. In fact, the word
was also commonly used in the fourteenth century to drive cattle.

(09:34):
Sailors took to adding the A, creating the nautical term
Ahoy as a means to get someone's attention. And speaking
of attention seeking, another word pirates and seafares used in
the late seventeenth century was a vast, originally from the
Dutch phrase cood vast, which means to stop or hold fast.
Pirate crews may have altered the phrase to fit their needs,

(09:56):
and a glance through any number of searches for pirate
lingo will will reveal shiver me timbers. Actor Robert Newton,
who he mentioned a bit ago, famously coined that Golden
Nugget of a term in his pirate film long John Silver.
What's it mean? Well, timbers refers to a ship's support frame.
Shiver in this instance means to startle. but did pirates

(10:17):
really say shiver me timbers? While the term does have
its roots in nautical slang, the phrase itself seems to
be fictional. That's not to say that some pirates still
operational in the late eighteen hundreds didn't have a word
to describe surprise, frustration or disbelief. The word blind me,
for example, stems from the English phrase God blind me.

(10:38):
Other Times they might have said scupper that, which was
to tell someone to toss an item overboard, literally or figuratively.
And earlier I mentioned the word hornswoggle. It means to
cheat or deceive. Oddly, the first time the words showed
up in written history was in the United States in
eighteen twenty nine, over a century after the golden age
of piracy had come to an end. And how about

(11:00):
that old fan favorite, the word I? Linguists suggests that
it's a Scottish or middle English word. Meaning yes or
I assent, and has origins dating back to the late
fifteen hundreds. It's likely that pirates and other mariners said
I and, of course, what fun is a specialized dictionary
without insults? And friend, let me tell you, pirates were

(11:21):
experts at using them. For example, pirates and other seafares
used the term bilge rat to identify vermin that lived
in the bilge, the lowest compartment on the ship, and
since pirates considered a bilge rat to be the lowest
form of life on board any ship, you can imagine
that calling a person a bill rat was definitely an insult.
The phrase scurvy dog isn't about a dog at all.

(11:43):
Sailors were often referred to as dogs, which had connotations
of UH promiscuity, although scurvy was a disease many sailors
and pirates got from a lack of vitamin C. It
was also used to refer to someone without pride, without
strength or much enthusiasm. Other insults of notes are Pickaroon,
scally wag and rap scallion, which is another way of

(12:04):
saying that someone is a scoundrel. But pirates didn't just
have words to insult one another, calling someone. Bucko might
sound rough, but it was actually considered friendly. Lad and
lass were polite ways to address someone in their youth and,
of course, the most common of them all, mate Maydie,
and me hardy's, which weren't insults at all, but instead

(12:25):
words of friendship and endearment. Let's wrap things up for
today with one more big concept that most of us
have heard of, Davy Jones Locker. In the Disney movie
pirates of the Caribbean, at world's end, we even see
Captain Jack Sparrow spend months there on a beach with

(12:47):
no wind and no ocean. But did real pirates have
a Davy Jones locker? The legend first appeared during the
mid eighteenth century. That refers to a place at the
bottom of the sea where an evil spirit known as
Davy Jones keeps the souls of deceased sailors in a locker.
And by Locker, of course, I'm in a chest like

(13:07):
a steamer trunk that you might find in a grandparents house,
kept at the foot of your bed. That chest can
sometimes be referred to as a foot locker. Now you know. Well,
that's it for our little detour today. We hope you've
enjoyed our adventure into pirate lingo. Today we may not
have been swilling rum or sailing the high seas in
search of treasure, but we can embrace our inner pirate.

(13:29):
Enjoy the rest of your international talk like a Pirate Day,
and if you love this episode, be sure to reach
out and say Ahoy. Pirates was executive produced by Aaron
Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and Alexandra Steid. Writing
for this season was provided by Michelle Muto, with research
by Alexandra Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided

(13:52):
by Josh Thane, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams and Matt Frederick.
To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm
and mild and I at Radio, visit Grimm and mild
dot com. M HM