pirate vs privateer

pirate

noun
  • An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels. 

  • A bird which practises kleptoparasitism. 

  • A kind of marble in children's games. 

  • A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns. 

  • One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission. 

verb
  • To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of. 

  • To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of. 

  • To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea. 

  • To engage in piracy. 

  • To entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own. 

adj
  • Illegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself. 

privateer

noun
  • A privately owned warship that acted under a letter of marque to attack enemy ships and take possession of their cargo. 

  • An officer or any other member of the crew of such a ship; a government-sanctioned pirate. 

  • An advocate or beneficiary of privatization of a government service or activity. 

  • A private individual entrant into a race or competition who does not have the backing of a large, professional team. 

  • A racing team that is not a subsidiary of a large conglomerate, or automotive/vehicle manufacturer. 

verb
  • To function under official sanction permitting attacks on enemy shipping and seizing ship and cargo; to engage in government-sponsored piracy. 

  • To advocate or benefit from privatization of government services. 

How often have the words pirate and privateer occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )