Pirates were often privateers, which fit that definition very well.
Furthermore, the overlap between piracy and warfare meant that many pirates served in paramilitary forces before, after, or during their pirate days. For an illustration, note this description of the Battle of New Orleans, including a prominent pirate acting as an irregular military advisor / commander, and many of his compatriots serving even in land-based artillery companies.
This also applies to my paradigm of “pirate”.
You might be thinking of privateers.
Yes. There was a very blurry distinction between the two while England wanted to encourage piracy against France.
I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Pirates were often privateers, which fit that definition very well.
Furthermore, the overlap between piracy and warfare meant that many pirates served in paramilitary forces before, after, or during their pirate days. For an illustration, note this description of the Battle of New Orleans, including a prominent pirate acting as an irregular military advisor / commander, and many of his compatriots serving even in land-based artillery companies.