Etymology of 'filibuster'

In the recent marathon session of the United States Senate, one senator tried to disparage the practice of filibuster by relating its etymology. This is a particularly foolish argument, as I'm sure plenty of things with which the senator is in favor have names which originally reflected practices which we now find objectionable. Although from a scholarly point of view it represents shoddy reasoning, for all I know it may actually be an effective political tactic.
In any case, I found the etymology of "filibuster" to be interesting. Here is its etymology as given by The Century Dictionary ( www.century-dictionary.com ):
(quote)
filibuster , n. (< Sp. filibustero
(with inserted i in first syllable) (= It. filibus- tiere ), < Fr. flibustier, earlier fribustier, a filibus- ter, bucaneer, freebooter (with s inserted, but
orig. not pronounced a common fact in the 17th
century F., after the analogy of words in which
an original s was retained in spelling, though
it had become silent in pronunciation) ; < D.
vrijbueter (Kilian, 1598), now vrijbuiter, a free- booter, = E. freebooter = Dan. fribytter = Sw. fribytare = G. freibeuter (the E., Dan., Sw., and G. words being not independent formations,
but formed after the analogy of the D. vrijbue-
ter, which appears to be the oldest form). In
a Dutch work ("De Americaensche Zee-Roo-
vers," 1678) written by a bucaneer named John
Oexmelin, otherwise Exquemelin or Esqueme-
ling, and translated into French and Spanish,
and subsequently into English (1684), the ad-
venturers of the West Indies are said to have
been divided into three classes the bucaneers
( boucaniers ) or hunters (see bucaneer ), the fili- busters ( flibustiers ) or rovers, and the farmers ( habitans ) ; and the flibustiers are said to have assumed their name "from the English word
flibuster, which means rover" ; this must re-
fer to E. freebooter, but the D. form appears
to be the original. The bucaneers consisted
mainly of French, Dutch, and English adven-
turers, and not to any extent of Spaniards, with
whom they were constantly at war ; the Sp. form
filibustero can only be an accom. of the F. fli- bustier ; the s is now pronounced in F., etc., be- cause, as now used, it is taken from the books,
as spelled. The commonly assumed connection
with E. flyboat (Sp. flibote, filibote, F. flibot, < D. vlieboot : see flyboat ) has no support either in form or in historical fact.)
(end quote)

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com