filibuster

Definition

A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a country in Central America or the Spanish West Indies in the mid-19th century seeking economic and political benefits through armed force.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish filibustero (“pirate”), from French flibustier, ultimately from Dutch vrijbuiter (“freebooter”), from vrij (“free”) + buit (“booty”) + -er (“agent”). The alteration in the first syllable in French is due to the word's being somewhat conflated with vlieboot (“light, flat-bottomed cargo vessel with two or three masts”) when it was borrowed into French or another language from Dutch. The word is cognate and analogous to English freebooter.

Example Sentences

• "These duties involved prodigious physical and mental exertion, in a climate deadly to Europeans. They also involved much voyaging in waters haunted by filibusters and buccaneers. But nothing appears to daunt Labat. As for the filibusters, he becomes their comrade and personal friend;—he even becomes their chaplain, and does not scruple to make excursions with them."
• "Mexico's War of Independence (1810–1821) encouraged an increase in the activity of filibusters in northern Mexico, particularly Texas. Spain's concentration on repressing independence movements within Mexico created opportunities for filibusters to seize control of its northern frontier regions."
• "Filibusters were American citizens who used armed force to procure economic and political influence beyond the borders of the United States from 1848–1861. Their efforts were directed mainly southward toward Cuba, Mexico, and the Central American republics. These illegal excursions disrupted diplomatic relations of the United States within its own hemisphere by damaging relations with Latin American countries and the United Kingdom."