Buccan orBoucan is the nativeSouth American andCaribbean name[1] for a wooden framework or hurdle on which meat was slow-roasted orsmoked over a fire. Spaniards called the same process "barbacoa", later "barbecue".[2]
The term "buccaneer" for pirates or privateers, is said to be[1] derived from buccan. In the Caribbean, seafarers used the wooden frames for smoking meat, preferablypork. From this derived theFrench wordboucane and hence the nameboucanier for French hunters who used such frames to smoke meat fromferalcattle andpigs onHispaniola (nowHaiti and theDominican Republic).English colonistsanglicised the wordboucanier tobuccaneer.[3]
