Talk Like a Pirate Today, Matey, Or Walk the Plank!

You know you were waiting for an excuse to get your Jolly Roger on

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 19, 2008 4:42 PM CDT

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Talk Like a Pirate Today, Matey, Or Walk the Plank! — Actors and film staff of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" line up on the stage set on a pirates ship at the Asia premiere of their latest film in Tokyo, May 23, 2007. (AP Photo)

Ahoy, matey! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the Detroit Free Press reports—though the good fortune of falling on a Friday has some wannabe swashbucklers set for a weekend of buccaneering behavior. Initially a joke between two friends, the holiday got national exposure when Dave Barry mentioned it in his Miami Herald column—and pirate-lovers everywhere realized what they’d been missing.

Need a little help to master swashbuckling speech? Here's a few key words:

"Ahoy!”—means “Hello!”
“Aye!”—signifies that you agree.
“Arrr!”—can mean anything from “Yes!” to “I agree” to “I’m happy.”

(More pirates stories.)

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