Floruit ( / ˈ f l ɔːr u . ɪ t / ; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor. ; from Latin for " flourished ") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone flourished.
6-701: Emanuel Wynn ( fl. 1700) was a French pirate of the 17th century who is often considered the first pirate to fly the Jolly Roger . British Admiralty Records, in the Public Records Office in the UK show, in a report dated 18 July 1700, that HMS Poole , a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate commanded by Captain John Cranby, engaged Wynn's ship off the Cape Verde islands. Cranby chased Wynn into
12-424: A cove at Brava Island where Wynn was able to hold out. Cranby enlisted the assistance of Portuguese soldiers, but thanks to their delay in attacking, Wynn slipped out of the harbor and escaped. Most historians agree that Cranby's journal is the first witness account of a black Jolly Roger used aboard ship, which Cranby described as "a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hour glass" (the quotation
18-522: A record of his marriage in 1197, a record concerning him might be written as "John Jones (fl. 1197–1229)", even though Jones was born before 1197 and died possibly after 1229. The term is often used in art history when dating the career of an artist. In this context, it denotes the period of the individual's known artistic activity, which would generally be after they had received their training and, for example, had begun signing work or being mentioned in contracts. In some cases, it can be replaced by
24-525: Is from Earle, Pirate Wars, p. 154) or "A Sable Flag with a White Death's Head and Crossed Bones in the Fly." Wynne is believed to be the first pirate to fly the now familiar form of the jolly roger. His flag, showing the distinctive skull and crossbones motif, was augmented with another common pirate symbol: an hourglass , meant to signify to his prey that their time was running out and only by timely surrender could they evade death. There were no other reports at
30-424: The noun flōs , flōris , "flower". Broadly, the term is employed in reference to the peak of activity for a person or movement. More specifically, it often is used in genealogy and historical writing when a person's birth or death dates are unknown, but some other evidence exists that indicates when they were alive. For example, if there are wills attested by John Jones in 1204 and 1229, as well as
36-505: The time of pirates using similar flags aboard ship (though red and other versions had been used by buccaneers during campaigns while ashore) but within 15 years the skull and crossbones design and its many variants would become the standard flag of Golden Age pirates . Floruit Latin : flōruit is the third-person singular perfect active indicative of the Latin verb flōreō , flōrēre "to bloom, flower, or flourish", from
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