Spanish Main

A geographical term referring to the Spanish possessions in the Americas. For 16th-century English raiders, “The Spanish Main” meant only the northern coast of South America (and the adjacent waters), from Panama to Trinidad. The term distinguished this region from the islands in the Caribbean – perhaps as a tranlstion of the Spanish name Tierra Firme (The Mainland) for the same area.

The English word main can mean a broad sweep of sea as well as a stretch of land. For some buccaneers of the late 17th and early 18th century, the “Spanish Main” meant the Caribbean Sea itself. (They thus exactly reversed the original definition.) Authors of pirate fiction employ the phrase to add local color to stories and movies. In this loose usage, “Spanish Main” can refer to any place in the Caribbean or along the coast from Florida to Brazil. (Rogozinski, Spanish Main, The)