Swashbuckler

A boastful and noisy brigand, eager to use his sword. A buckler is a small round shield carried on the arm. Swash refers to the sound made by a heavy blow, like that of the waves crashing on the shore. A swashbuckler came to mean someone who makes a loud noise by striking his own or his opponent’s shield with his sword. Sixteenth-century writers invented this picturesque word to describe any loud, swaggering bully, or ruffian. Revived in the 1800s, it now refers mainly to pirates or to pirate movies, especially those presenting many dynamic sword duels. (Rogozinski, Swashbuckler)