Every month, we take a look at a word in the headlines, in English, for your English. See more at The Word of the Month.
Definitions
Pirate: A person that attacks ships in order to steal from them. Affinity for rum, wooden legs, talking parrots. Dislikes dental hygiene.
Also
A person that illegally copies or distributescopyrighted material. Affinity for high bandwidth, anonymous IP addresses, talking parrots. Dislikes living with mother.
Pirates in the news
Megaupload, a mega file-hosting and streaming video site, was shut down for mega copyright infringement. Users mega sad.
In retaliation, the Internet group Anonymous hacked several government and corporate music sites. Their leader was quoted as saying ‘LOL’
Useless Pirate knowledge
Modern Somali pirates can earn up to 79,000 USD per year, minus the cost of gasoline, boat and guns. Kids, consider a career as a pirate!
Piracy is multinational. Check out this audio guide for aspiring Chinese pirates!
Notable Pirates
Blue Beard, Black Beard, Captain Hook, Johnny Depp. All of them have beards, only one works for Disney.
You and me: Your hard drive is full of contraband. You’re a pirate my friend, just like the rest of us.
Take a look through our Word of the Month archives, or improve your English with gymglish.com.