joli rouge

The skull-and-crossbones flag flown by pirates in the Atlantic was called the Jolly Roger by the early 1720s. Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates records several captains flying it by name. The origin of the phrase is disputed. The leading theory traces it to French joli rouge, 'pretty red,' referring to the blood-red flag that pirates originally flew to signal no quarter — meaning surrender or die. English sailors may have corrupted joli rouge into Jolly Roger through the usual mangling of French that characterizes English naval vocabulary.

A competing theory derives Roger from the English slang Old Roger, a name for the devil dating to at least the 1600s. A Jolly Roger would then be a 'merry devil' — the grinning skull on the flag lending the name a macabre humor. A third theory connects it to the Tamil word ali rajah, meaning 'king of the sea,' which English sailors in the Indian Ocean may have encountered and anglicized. None of these etymologies has been proven. The word's origin is itself a kind of pirate — it refuses to be captured.

What is certain is the flag's function. Pirates in the early 1700s used a two-flag system. The Jolly Roger — black with skull, bones, hourglasses, or bleeding hearts — was the first warning: surrender and you will be treated fairly. If the prey did not surrender, pirates raised a plain red flag, which meant no quarter: everyone aboard would be killed. The Jolly Roger was, counterintuitively, the merciful flag. It was a business proposition, not a death sentence.

The Jolly Roger was outlawed by the 1730s as European navies suppressed piracy, but the image survived. It became the universal symbol of piracy in popular culture, appeared on poison bottles and electrical hazard signs, and was adopted by submarine crews in the Royal Navy (a tradition started by World War I captain Max Horton). A flag designed to terrify merchant sailors now decorates children's birthday parties. The skull grins at every reinvention.