[f. ARCH- 1, after L. archipīrāta, ad. Gr. ἀρχιπειρᾱτής.] A chief pirate; a pirate captain. Also transf. of literary piracy.
1489. Caxton, Faytes Armes, II. ix. 107. An archepyrate, that is to say a grete thef of the see.
1567. Jewel, Def. Apol. (1611), 382. The Pope … called him Arch-pirate, Arch-heretike, and Apostata.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. 58/1. One of the mates slew the archpirat or capteine rover as I may call him.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 144. Hasting, a Norman Archpirate.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, George II. (1847), I. xii. 395. A sea-captain … gave the first claims to kings and archpirates over an unknown tract of country.
1828. Southey, To A. Cunningham. The Arch-Pirate Galignani hath prefix’d, A spurious portrait to a faithless life.
