Customer Reviews

Pirate Dictionary, The

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Here I am cruising along reading about BULLY BEEF, when I realize that they've placed it before BULK-HEAD. Hmm. When compiling a glossary these sorts of things really stand out! And I agree with the reviewer who happened to notice there are at least one typo per page, blatant glaring typos. I finally grabbed a red pen and started marking them up. Someone should be proofing a dictionary! But the content is fascinating and well worth the purchase if horrible editing doesn't irk you.

First let me say that this book contains a lot of interesting, useful information. I'll even makie the assumption that it's mostly accurate. And it's kind of entertaining, it actually makes a decent bathroom reader, if you underestand me.

But having said that, let me sigh and say it's the most ineptly produced book since Tom Clancy's recent novels (which are horribly under-edited.) Doesn't Pelican hire proof readers? It's hard to go three pages without finding glaring typos and misspellings. It's not uncommon to find two or three errors on a page. Just stupid, careless things.

I'll give the author credit for the interesting and useful content, and take the publisher (Pelican) to task for the mistakes. But when I'm reading what is ostensibly a reference book, that shoddy a job of proof reading makes it hard to take the book seriously.

Being a fan of pirates, I bought THE PIRATE DICTIONARY by Terry Breverton the moment I realized it existed. It has 189 pages of pirate terminology, defining terms like "hardtack," "sargasso sea," "chickcharnies," and "avast ye."

It also provides an explanation of the origins of phrases we use today, like "clean bill of health," "the coast is clear," "down the hatch," "loose cannon," and "touch and go."

In addition, it covers famous pirate havens, pirate ships, pirate captains, and even pirate jokes.

To me, this is one of those books that you can pick up, open to any page, and find something new to learn and enjoy. It's like reading trivia, which is something I enjoy.

Some of the negatives include:
1) Sloppy editing.
2) The definitions aren't differentiated by century or culture. For instance, would a French buccaneer in the 17th century say "hell's bells and buckets of blood"? Did American privateers in the 18th century use "muskatoons"?
3) Not enough photos or drawings to clarify what certain items looked like ("the wooden horse," for instance, was unclear).

Anyhow, this is definitely a great little guide for students of history or linguistics ... and for people who love pirates.

Quite a nifty little book, just wish it had "more". It's a delightful find for pirate fans or historical writers, with a lot of great pirate terms, a lot tidbit of information on pirate related stuff. Great for people wanting trivia or for really adding color to your pirate novel. However, gem that it is, some problems in editing, simple stuff that should have been caught. It provides origins of the phrases, many that have passed into common usage that people don't even stop to consider. All in all, a worthwhile treat!

It's a very interesting concept, but poorly written and edited. There are tons of grammatical and spelling errors as well as phrases that just don't make sense.

Left together on ships for months or years, pirates developed their own expressions which moved into common usage: just consider sea terms such as 'don't rock the boat', or 'know the ropes', to understand the impact of pirate lingo on even today's life. The words and phrases described herein offer a healthy set of insights into word origins and pirate history alike. Pirate Dictionary is a unique and impressively informative linguistic study which is recommended for Language Studies reference collections, as well as simple browsing by the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the evolution of popular English and American slang.

"The Pirate Dictionary" is an entertaining and well-written book offering, in alphabetical order, definitions of the words and phrases we have come to know and associate with pirates. The entries launch with "Aback" and drop anchor with "Zee-Rover" (which is Dutch for "pirates," and in English is "sea-rovers"). Many of the entries are words everyone knows, but author Terry Breverton ("Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All") has managed to include enough information about them to make each entry worth reading. More illustrations would have been useful and helpful. A handy, valuable historical reference written for the general public. Recommended.

I wanted this book for a long time and was very disappointed with it once I started reading. The problem, as other reviewers have mentioned, is the poor editing. It's not just a mistake here and there, it's every other page. Sometimes it's difficult to even understand what the author is attempting to say. I am very interested in pirates, so I was happy to find this book. But upon reading it, I decided it's definately best to page through before buying.

Do not buy this book!
I have an extensive nautical library and have done more than my share of research on the sea in general and pirates in particular. This book is so horribly written and filled to the brim with typos that I cannot recommend it to anyone. There are out and out errors which do not give me any faith at all in the author; the things I am not sure about, I simply cannot be sure about. That this author has fourteen other books in print scares me; the tide of typos could sink a battleship. I am not sure whether I will return this book for a refund, or set fire to it; the latter would be far more rewarding.

I'm a big fan of pirate history and pirate movies and books, but oftentimes find myself confused with some of the terms. This book was definitely able to equip me with the knowledge I need to understand the "language of pirates." Absolutely bursting with information, the only unlikeable thing I found about this book was the fact that it was edited terribly. Some words weren't alphabetized and in a few cases words were often repeated in succession such as in the Port Royal section. However, if you want a book for good information and don't mind the occasional grammar or spelling error, I'd reccomend this book to any pirate fan out there.