Term
Jolly Roger
Etymology
The origin of the term is contested. The most commonly cited derivation is from French joli rouge (pretty red), in reference to the red “bloody flag” that signalled no quarter; an alternative derivation cites the English nickname “Old Roger” for the Devil. Both etymologies are post hoc — the term first appears in print in the 1720s.
Definition
The popular name for the pirate flag, almost always understood to be the black flag with skull and crossbones. The term itself first appears in Charles Johnson’s General History of the Pyrates (1724) and is not attested in contemporary trial records or admiralty correspondence; whether actual Golden Age pirates used the term is unclear. The specific design conventionally called the Jolly Roger — the skull above two crossed bones — is the design most commonly depicted in contemporary and near-contemporary accounts; the skull-and-crossed-swords variant now popularly attributed to Calico Jack Rackham is not attested in the 1724 chronicle and first appears in a 1959 German illustrated history by Hans Leip (Bordbuch des Satans).
