Jeannette, the basic definition of "privateer" is "a private person authorized by a government to attack foreign shipping during wartime." So it's basically a pirate with legal authority, or a government's pirate.
In Spanish, it's "corsario." In French, it's "corsaire." I believe that makes it "corsaro" in Italian and "corsar" in Romanian. I have no idea what it is in German; sorry.
I just consulted my English-Dutch dictionary, and it suggests "kaper" as the Dutch equivalent. Does that help you?
