Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day in North East, Maryland

Welcome back to The Apartments at Charlestown Crossing Blog! September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD), and we’ve got some background information and resources to help you celebrate at our apartment community or while you’re out and about in North East, MD today.

History of Talk Like a Pirate Day

The ITLAPD movement got its start during a game of racquetball between a couple of fellows, John Baur and Mark Summer. They were talking like pirates during the game and thought it would be fun to designate a whole day to talk like pirates, and thus a holiday was formed. Why they chose an ex-wife’s birthday is up for debate, but September 19th was the fateful day.

Later, they shared their idea with humorist Dave Barry, who highlighted their cause about how to talk like a pirate in his column in the Miami Herald. During the intervening years the holiday has taken off; now many people not only talk like a pirate but also have pirate-themed parties and dress up like pirates for the day.

Pirate Speak

Talking like a pirate can be as simple as adding a lot of arrrrrs to your conversation and throwing in words like yoho, booty, yardarm, and aye and phrases such as keel haul, fire in the hole, hempen halter, and splice the main brace to your speech as you are out and about in North East today. If you need definitions of these words or phrases or if you simply want more fodder for your conversation, we’ve included a Pirate Glossary for your convenience. Check out this list from The Vintage News of 25 of the Best Pirate Words We Should All Be Using. Learn even more about Legends of Eastern Shore Pirates, including ones who operated in Maryland, to finish off your day.

We hope you have a great time speaking like a pirate on the 19th! Share your favorite pirate-themed words, movies, or books in the comments. We’ll be back next time with more great content. Thanks for reading The Apartments at Charlestown Blog!