--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> Then there are these:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigantine
>
> ...
> So we could imagine it was a trading seafaring people, a kind of
> early Hanse, which took to piracy when it fell on hard times?
The term brigantine has nothing to do with the ancient Brigantes.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=b&p=18
"brigantine -- 'small two-masted ship', 1525, from M.Fr. brigandin,
from It. brigantino..."
It. brigantino is first attested in the 14th century, namely, two
centuries earlier than Eng. brigantine. The It. term may have
derived either directly from the verb brigare (in its secondarily
evolved meaning as 'to fight') or indirectly from its substantived
participle brigante (in its secondarily evolved meaning
as 'fighter').
Eng. brig is a diminutive form of brigantine.
Regards,
Francesco