arr
verbEtymology Possibly from aye. The pirate-imitation form was derived from the West Country dialect after its use by West Country-born actor Robert Newton (1905–1956) in the films Treasure Island (1950) and Blackbeard the Pirate (1952)—and the former’s spin-off media—in which he played, respectively, the fictional pirate Long John Silver and the historical pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (c. 1680 – 1718; also a West Country native).
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Rare To say “arr” like a pirate.
- How do you know someone's a pirate? Because they arr.
- This distances the audience from the ripping yam element of the story, and for all the sails and stockades which decorate the stage, there are times when the pace drops and the inevitable oo-arring gets a bit coarse. One small pirate in the audience commented that it got a bit boring when they all stood around talking—and he was not entirely wrong.2005, “Treasure Island: A New Adaptation by Grace Barnes”, in Theatre Record: The Chronicle of the British Stage, London: Shuttleworth, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 968:
1 more example
- Pirates become a running joke between us. When she was a sophomore, I once served her artichokes, arugula, and arroz con pollo for dinner, and we "arred" our way through the entire meal.2011, Sarah Bird, The Gap Year: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-0-307-59279-8; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4516-7876-5, page 9