The Phoenicians and the Greeks

The Greek word for a ship was Naus. And the Greeks coined the term Nausia to represent the sick feeling that people sometimes experienced on ships. The Romans adopted the Greek term as Naavis in Latin, and from there it produced words like Navy and Navigate and Nautical in Modern English. With sea trade came crime and theft on the open sea as well as other places. So the modern word for pirate comes from the ancient Greek word Peyrot - which meant one who attacks.