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Nov 29, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—M

Maroon

A runaway slave sent to the Calabouco, or place where such slaves were punished, as the Maroons of Brazil. Those of Jamaica are the offspring of runaways from the old Jamaica plantations or from Cuba, to whom, in 1738, the British Government granted a tract of land, on which they built two towns. The word is from the verb “maroon,” to set a person on an inhospitable shore and leave him there (a practice common with pirates and buccaneers). The word is a corruption of Cimarron, a word applied by Spaniards to anything unruly, whether man or beast. (See Scott: Pirate, xxii.)

Maroon

(To). To set a man on a desert island and abandon him there. This marooning was often practised by pirates and buccaneers. (See above.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Marozia
Maronites
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