Hist. A modernized form of the 11th c. butsecarl, a. ON. buzukarl, meaning ‘seaman, sailor, mariner’ [cf. BUSS sb.1]. Found in the 17th c. legal antiquaries, and occasionally used by modern historical writers in this or the original form.
a. 1121. O. E. Chron., an. 1066 (Laud MS.). Þa butsecarlas hine forsocan.
[1664. Spelman cites the forms buzecarl (Domesday), butsecarl, buthsecarl, buzsecarl, bucecarl.
1678. Blount, has Buzcarles, Buscarles, Mariners or Seamen.
1730–6. Bailey, Butsecarl, Butescarl, a Boatswain or Mariner.]
1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., III. 176. Sturdy knights, active squires, weather-beaten butsecarles … assembled at Fécamp.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., i. 53. Out and away aboard a ship among the buscarles. Ibid., vi. 118. The broad hats of peaceful buscarles.
