Talk:pirate

Request for verification
Rfv-sense: noun, one who illegally copies or receives such copies of copyrighted material. Now, I've heard the verb sense, to be sure. But a noun sense? "Heidi hasn't bought a CD in years, she get's everything off the net. She's such a pirate." just sounds really odd to me. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 18:26, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I think that we will find attributive use of the noun in phrases like "a pirate CD-duplicating factory". DCDuring TALK 19:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I have split the sense into "making copies" sense (easy to cite) and "receiving pirated goods" sense (not as easy to cite), both with rfv tags. I have broadened the "making copies" sense to include all intellectual property (trademark, design, patent}. DCDuring TALK 19:30, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Cited "make illegal copies" sense. DCDuring TALK 20:28, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, the adjective sense. I've only ever heard a participle of the verb used in an adjectival sense.  -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 18:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I've inserted an rfv tag at the adjective, but perhaps it should be an rfd. It seems like attributive use of the noun. The only uses of "more pirate than" is in expressions like "more pirate than shipping agent". DCDuring TALK 19:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * It sounds very odd to me as well, but gets a few hundred hits. There are a lot of nouns like this, that can't easily be used alone, but that follow specific patterns of meaning when they take attributive modifiers. A similar (but slightly different) case may be seen at [[waterfall]], where you can say "a waterfall of ____" but can't easily let "waterfall" stand alone unless you mean a literal cataract. I think such senses are worth including — certainly undefined:, undefined:, etc. don't all warrant separate inclusion — but it's probably a good idea to use usage notes and s to clarify everything. —Ruakh TALK 23:29, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * There seems to be a PoV push that has to do with saying that receiving a pirated copy makes you a pirate. I don't think that usage has caught on. It may be a crime but it isn't called piracy. DCDuring TALK 00:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I remember hearing the use of pirate in the 1960s to refer to a "pirate radio station," (Wikipedia entry) which might have been a radio station set-up offshore (of, e.g., the UK) that broadcast to the mainland. The use of "piracy" (and therefore "pirate") to refer to illegal copying of music, etc. may have followed from that. Though I think these uses of the words have been planted for the benefit of publishers — "piracy" sounds a lot sexier than "illegal copying" — I believe they have become common usage. — HowardBGolden 02:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Clocked out, one sense cited, other not. DCDuring TALK 19:25, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

RFV passed without the "or receives such copies" part. Thanks, DCDuring, for your citations and other work on this entry. —Ruakh TALK 22:50, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Type of children's marble
I have just added the sense (with one citation) "a kind of marble in children's games". In my childhood this referred to the opaque black marble with coloured streaks (typically red, yellow or white, I think). From the citation I can't be sure. Equinox ◑ 06:27, 12 April 2016 (UTC)