abbess

abbesses (plural)
abbatess (alternative obsolete)
abbotess (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English abbesse, from Old French abeesse (French abbesse), from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbatissa, feminine of Latin abbas, abbatis (“abbot”).

Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.

1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12:

So an old Abbess for the rattling Rakes, / A tempting dish of human nature makes, / And dresses up a luscious Maid: / I rather should have said, indeed, undresses, / To please a youth's unsanctified caresses.

1793, John Wolcot, A Poetical, Serious, and Possibly Impertinent, Epistle to the Pope, Ode II, page 33:

"I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety, but generally designated the Abbess of .... Her residence is at no great distance from one of the royal palaces; and she is distinguished for her bold ingenuous line of conduct in the profession which she has chosen to adopt; so much so, indeed, that she eclipses all her competitors in infamy."

1881, Pierce Egan, chapter 8, in Life in London, page 205:

Charles G[odfrey] Leland
w:Charles Godfrey Leland

John S[tephen] Farmer
w:John Stephen Farmer

(archaic, British slang) A woman who runs a brothel; a woman employed by a prostitute to find clients.


quail

en-noun

quail (countable and uncountable, plural quails or quail)

From Middle English quayle, quaile, quaille, from Anglo-Norman quaille, from Late Latin quaccola (“quail”).
(prostitute): So called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.

Her's Agamemnon, an honeſt fellow inough and one that loues quailes, but hee has not ſo much braine as eare-wax, […]

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently Expressing the Beginning of their Loues, with the Conceited Wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Licia, London: Imprinted by G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, and are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore, published 1609, →OCLC, act V, scene 1:


sell

en-verb

sell (third-person singular simple present sells, present participle selling, simple past and past participle sold)

sells (present singular third-person)
selling (participle present)
sold (participle past)
sold (past)

desc

Chinese Pidgin English: sellum, 些林 (Chinese spelling)

Sranan Tongo: seri

From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Compare Danish sælge, Swedish sälja, Icelandic selja.

inh

buy when it snows(,/ and) sell when it goes

don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage

This old stock will never sell.

The corn sold for a good price.

Howard: You're gonna feel terrible when I'm in a wheelchair. Which, by the way, would fit easily in the back of this award-winning minivan.
Bernadette: Fine, we'll go to the E.R. Just stop selling me on the van.
Howard: You're right. It sells itself.

2016, “The Fetal Kick Catalyst”, in The Big Bang Theory:

en:promote (a product or service) although without pay

(transitive) To promote (a product or service) although not being paid in any direct way or at all.

My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.

(transitive) To promote (a particular viewpoint).

(transitive) To betray for money or other things.

Then weaues
Other crosse-plots
New tricks for safety, are sought;
They thriue: When, bold,
Each tempt's th'other againe, and all are sold.

1605 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Ben: Ionson His Volpone or The Foxe, [London]: […] [George Eld] for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page):

House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.

1884, Mark Twain, chapter XXIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.

2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC:

(transitive, slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.

He's selling!

He really sold in that match.

(Australia, slang, intransitive) To throw under the bus; to let down one's own team in an endeavour, especially in a sport or a game.


slit

From Old English slītan, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyd- (“to tear, rend (cut apart), split apart”). Possibly cognate with Latin laed- (“to strike, hurt, injure”). Doublet of slite; also related to slice through French borrowing. Apparently unrelated to English slot, whose etymology, however, is uncertain.

(vulgar, slang, derogatory) A woman, usually a sexually loose woman; a prostitute.

slet

vulgar, slang: a derogatory name for a woman, usually a sexually loose woman; a prostitute


broad

Early 20th century, from American English. Perhaps from broad hips. Or from abroadwife (“woman who lives or travels without her husband, often a slave”). There may also have been influence from bride and/or its German cognate Braut (“bride”, also “girlfriend”, and more generally “broad, young woman”).

“Now we go up Bowery Street look at broads. Me pay.”

1925, John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, 1st section, page 94:

(dated) A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.


prostitute

en-verb

prostitute (third-person singular simple present prostitutes, present participle prostituting, simple past and past participle prostituted)

prostitutes (present singular third-person)
prostituting (participle present)
prostituted (participle past)
prostituted (past)

From Latin prōstitūtus, past participle of prōstituō, from prō̆ (“for, before”) + statuō (“to set up, to erect”).

af

Do not prostitute thy daughter.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus xix:29:

(transitive, reflexive) To offer (oneself or someone else) for sexual activity in exchange for money.

fè bòbò

reflexive: to perform sexual activity for money

sell one's body

to offer oneself for sexual activity for money

pimp

to offer another person for sexual activity for money


cop

en-verb

cop (third-person singular simple present cops, present participle copping, simple past and past participle copped)

cops (present singular third-person)
copping (participle present)
copped (participle past)
copped (past)

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *coppen, *copen, from Old English copian (“to plunder; pillage; steal”); or possibly from Middle French caper (“to capture”), from Latin capiō (“to seize, grasp”); or possibly from Dutch kapen (“to seize, hijack”), from Old Frisian kāpia (“to buy”), whence Saterland Frisian koopje, North Frisian koope. Compare also Middle English copen (“to buy”), from Middle Dutch copen.

inh

(transitive, trainspotting, slang) To see and record a railway locomotive for the first time.

I said, 'Tell your tricks to call you here.'
She laid the bearskin and freaked the joint off with her lights and other crap. Except for the fake stars it was a fair mock-up of her pad where I had copped her.

1967, Iceberg Slim, Pimp, published 2009, page 90:

The code was to call a pimp and tell him you have his hoe plus turn over her night trap but that was bull because the HOE was out of his stable months before I copped her.

2011, Shaheem Hargrove, Sharice Cuthrell, The Rise and Fall of a Ghetto Celebrity, page 55:

(transitive, slang, of a pimp) To recruit a prostitute into the stable.


hook

en-verb

hook (third-person singular simple present hooks, present participle hooking, simple past and past participle hooked)

hooks (present singular third-person)
hooking (participle present)
hooked (participle past)
hooked (past)

sometimes in Northern England and Ireland, otherwise obsolete

From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”).
Cognates
Compare West Frisian heak, Dutch haak (“hook”)) (compare West Frisian/Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk); also related to hake.

koukata

hockey: to engage in the illegal maneuver of hooking

I had a cheap flat in the bad part of town, and I could watch the working girls hooking from my bedroom window.

(intransitive, slang) To engage in prostitution.


turn out

turn out (third-person singular simple present turns out, present participle turning out, simple past and past participle turned out)

turns out (present singular third-person)
turning out (participle present)
turned out (participle past)
turned out (past)

From Middle English turnen out, tornen out, equivalent to turn + out.
The slang and prison terms meaning "to turn into a prostitute, etc." are probably an ellipsis for turn (inside) out (“to flip someone's character or role”).

He then turned her out onto the streets of Chicago with a quota to meet: $500 for a night's work.

2008, Carolyn Maloney, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated:

Like I told you, I'm still turning this one bitch out. […] Sunday is three days away, if you ain't turned her out by then she ain't worth it.

2008, Joseph B. Haggerty, Sr., Shame: The Story of a Pimp, page 361:

The nigga that turned her out was named Derek “Sweets” D. I despised that pimping motherfucker with passion.

2012, Eyes . . . JB, If I Should Die Tonight: The Untold Stories, page 18:

(sex, transitive, slang) To convince a person (usually a woman) to become a prostitute.


whore

whore (third-person singular simple present whores, present participle whoring, simple past and past participle whored)

whores (present singular third-person)
whoring (participle present)
whored (participle past)
whored (past)
wh*re (alternative)
whoore (alternative obsolete)
ho (alternative derogatory slang)
hoe (alternative derogatory slang)

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

non-rhotic, dough-door merger, African-American Vernacular

nonstandard but traditional, several locations

(North American)

From Middle English hore, from Old English hōre, from Proto-Germanic *hōrǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ros (“loved”), from *keh₂- (“to wish; desire”). Cognate with Dutch hoer, German Hure, Old Norse hóra as well as Sanskrit चारु (cā́ru, “dear”), Latin cārus (“dear, expensive”), and Irish cara (“friend”).
The unetymological spelling with wh- superficially denotes a formerly standard pronunciation with an excrescent /w/ (such as in whole), but such a form is hardly found in either commentators on Early Modern English pronunciations or records of traditional dialects (which both explicitly mention its rarity or absence), therefore leaving the spelling somewhat inexplicable. However, this may be because the excrescent /w/ was lost before /uː/ (as in words with etymological /w/ such as whom, two) after it became established in the spelling but before our earliest orthoepic records.

(intransitive, vulgar) To prostitute oneself.


beau

From Middle English beau, beu, bew, bewe, from Old French beau, from Latin bellus (“beautiful”). Doublet of bello and boo.


tom

From generic use of the proper name Tom.


tramp

tramp (third-person singular simple present tramps, present participle tramping, simple past and past participle tramped)

tramps (present singular third-person)
tramping (participle present)
tramped (participle past)
tramped (past)

From Middle English trampen (“to walk heavily”), from Middle Low German trampen (“to stamp”) (trampeln (“to walk with heavy steps”), see trample) or from Middle Dutch trampen (“to stamp”), from Proto-West Germanic *trampan (“to step”). Doublet of tremp.
Cognate with Dutch trampen (“to stamp, kick, step”), dialectal German trampen (“to step, walk, tread”), whence commoner German trampeln (“to trample”). Probably related to trap.

der

We tramped through the woods for hours before we found the main path again.

To walk for a long time (usually through difficult terrain).

мъкна се

to walk for a long time through difficult terrain


succubus

Alteration in Middle English (based on incubus m) of Late Latin succuba (“strumpet, especially a mythological fiend in female form who has intercourse with men in their sleep”), from Latin succubo (“to lie under”), from sub- (“under”) + cubare (“to lie down”).


trap

en-noun

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

From Middle English trappe, from Old English træppe, treppe (“trap, snare”) (also in betræppan (“to trap”)) from Proto-West Germanic *trappjā (“trap, snare”), from Proto-West Germanic *trappjan (“to step”), from Proto-Germanic *trapjaną (“to tread, stamp”), from Proto-Indo-European *drebʰ- (“to step, trip, trample”).
Cognate with Dutch trap (“trap, snare”), German Low German Trapp (“trap”). Akin also to West Frisian traap (“stepping, treading, stairway”), German Treppe (“step, stair”), Old English træppan (“to step, tread”). Connection to "step" is "that upon which one steps". French trappe and Spanish trampa are ultimately borrowings from Germanic.

فَخّ

trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense

koppi

device used to hold and suddenly release an object

сифо́н

bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe to prevent the escape of noxious gases

vēuháutsīe

a type of trap to catch birds using bait with adjustable loop

The money clip held thirty-nine hundred dollars, combined with her trap money, she had five thousand dollars for her man.

2010, C. J. Land, A Hustler's Tale, page 54:

For the first time in the week since she'd been hooking she hadn't made her trap.

2012 (original 1981), Alix Kates Shulman, On the Stroll: A Novel, Open Road Media

(slang, uncountable) The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.


mackerel

en-noun

mackerel (countable and uncountable, plural mackerel or mackerels)

Sylheti: ꠝꠦꠇꠞꠥꠟ (mexrul)

From Middle English mackerell, macrell, macrelle, makarell, makerel, makerell, makerelle, makrel, makrell, makyrelle, from Old French maquerel. Further origin unknown.

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

Certain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,

[…] you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

I am living fast, to see the Time, when a Book that misses its Tide, shall be neglected, as the Moon by Day, or like Mackarel a Week after the Season.

1704, [Jonathan Swift], A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 215:

Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

He sometimes pinches the maids till their arms are as many colours as a mackerel’s back.

1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 6, in Lud-in-the-Mist, London: Millennium, published 2000, page 68:

1982, Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Chapter 5, in Zami; Sister Outsider; Undersong, New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993, p. 47,
“ […] if you ever so much as breathe a word about my stories, Sandman’s comin’ after you the very same minute to pluck out you eyes like a mackerel for soup.”

Scomber scombrus
Scomber scombrus#Translingual

typically Scomber scombrus in the British isles.

A true mackerel, any fish of tribe Scombrini (Scomber spp., Rastrelliger spp.)

Certain other similar small fish in families Carangidae, Gempylidae, and Hexagrammidae.


mackerel

From Middle English makerel, maquerel, from Old French maquerel, from Middle Dutch makelare, makelaer (“broker”) (> makelaar (“broker, peddler”)). See also French maquereau.

1483, William Caxton, Magnus Cato, quoted in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, publ. by John Russell Smith (1847), page 536.
[…] nyghe his hows dwellyd a maquerel or bawde […]

NETTING MACKEREL: THE PIMP DETAIL

1980, The Police Journal, Volume 53 (page 257) doi:10.1177/0032258X8005300305 (also available at Google books)

Hundreds of ‘night birds’ and their ‘mackerels’ and other vice-pushers were sent packing.

1981, Peter Gammond, Raymond Horricks, Big Bands, page 15:

2006, Paul Crowley, Message-ID: in humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare https://web.archive.org/web/20201001221812/https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare/VarPp2-HSO0/QuMJdNOwfisJ
A procurer or a pimp is a broker (or broker-between), a mackerel, or a pandar; the last is not necessarily-and, indeed, not usually-a professional.

You can't 'work' in a legal brothel without mackerel.

2009, Jeffery Klaehn, Roadblocks to Equality, →ISBN, page 118:

Perhaps, but my sources think the mackerel knew of this girl but she didn't know of him.


hooker

Unknown. The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to General Hooker of the American Civil War, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to a coastal feature called a hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Carefully learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label

2018, Brendon Urie, Michael Angelakos, Sam Hollander, Morgan Kibby, Jake Sinclair, Dillon Francis, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It”, in Pray for the Wicked, performed by Panic! at the Disco:


madam

madams (plural)
mesdames (plural)
madame (alternative)

From Middle English madame, from Old French madame, from ma (“my”) + dame (“lady”), from post-classical Latin mea domina. Doublet of Madonna.

After she grew too old to work as a prostitute, she became a madam.

I sneaked into the house and stole my sister’s Hudson-seal fur coat out of the closet, then I beat it down to a whorehouse and sold it to the madam for $150.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 54:

(slang) A woman who runs a brothel, particularly one that specializes in finding prostitutes for rich and important clients.


pimp

Origin unknown. Perhaps from French pimpant (“smart, sparkish”) or German Pimpf (“boy, youth, young squirt”). The Old English near-synonym was rendered by Old English forspennend (literally “solicitor”).

unk

unknown

ncog

A fella looking dapper / And he's sittin' with a slapper / Then I see it's a pimp / And his crack whore

2006, Lily Allen, Iyiola Babalola, Darren Lewis, Tommy McCook, “LDN”, in Alright, Still, performed by Lily Allen:

Someone who solicits customers for prostitution and acts as manager for a group of prostitutes; a pander.


on the game

UK late-19th century. However, the game as a euphemism for sexual activity dates to at least Troilus and Cressida (1602): "Set them down / For sluttish spoils of opportunity / And daughters of the game." Compare with the similar euphemism sport.

Oh please go on the game. It's a steady job and you'd be working from home.

1986 January 9, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, Bells (Blackadder II), episode 1, spoken by Kate's Father (Edward Jewesbury):

What's he want it for anyway? Don't tell me he's going on the game.

1990 November 18, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

(UK, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) Working as a prostitute.


jazz

en-verb

jazz (third-person singular simple present jazzes, present participle jazzing, simple past and past participle jazzed)

jazzes (present singular third-person)
jazzing (participle present)
jazzed (participle past)
jazzed (past)
jaz (alternative dated)
jas (alternative dated)
jass (alternative dated)
jasz (alternative dated)

Unknown. First attested around 1912 in a discussion of baseball; attested in reference to music around 1915. Numerous references suggest that the term may be connected to jasm and jism.

‘Jazzing?’ Temple whispered […]. ‘Yes, putty-face!’ the woman said. ‘How do you suppose I paid that lawyer?’

1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 59:

(intransitive, US slang, dated) To have sex for money, to prostitute oneself.


wench

Sranan Tongo: wenke

The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”) [and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). The English word is cognate with Old High German wenken (“to waver; to give way, yield”), wankōn (“to totter”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

2 [Friar Bernardine]. Thou haſt committed— / Bar[abas]. Fornication? but that was in another Country; And beſides, the Wench is dead.

c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IV, signature G2, verso:

Whilſt Men have theſe Ambitious Fancies, / And wanton Wenches read Romances, / Our Sex will—What? out with it: Lye: / And Theirs in equal Strains reply.

1702, Mat[thew] Prior, “To a Young Gentleman in Love. A Tale.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 103:

It must not thought a digression from my intended speculation, to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches; for a woman of the town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the education of one of these houses.

1712 January 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, January 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 266; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 329:

NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise.

(archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress (“other woman in an extramarital relationship”).


wench

en-verb

wench (third-person singular simple present wenches, present participle wenching, simple past and past participle wenched)

wenches (present singular third-person)
wenching (participle present)
wenched (participle past)
wenched (past)
wench (infinitive)
wench (first-person present singular)
wenched (first-person past singular)
wench (present second-person singular)
wenchest (archaic present second-person singular)
wenched (past second-person singular)
wenchedst (archaic past second-person singular)
wenches (present singular third-person)
wencheth (archaic present singular third-person)
wenched (past singular third-person)
wench (plural present)
wenched (past plural)
wench (present subjunctive)
wenched (past subjunctive)
wench (imperative present)
wenching (participle present)
wenched (participle past)

This is ſure ſome hide-bound ſtudent, that proportions his expence by his penſion; and wencheth at Tottenham court for ſtewed prunes and cheeſcakes.

1638, Thomas Nabbes, The Bride, a Comedie. […], London: Printed by R[ichard] H[odgkinson] for Laurence Blaikelocke […], published 1640, →OCLC; republished in Playes, Maskes, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums. […], London: Printed by I. Dawson, […], 1639, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv:

He [a man under the influence of the planet Mars] hath a marke or ſcar in his face, is broad-ſhouldered, a ſturdy ſtrong body, being bold and proud, given to mocke, ſcorne, quarrell, drinke, game and wench: which you may eaſily know by the Signe he is in; if in the houſe of ♀ he wencheth, if in ☿s he ſteals, [...]

1647, William Lilly, “Another Briefe Description of the Shapes and Formes of the Planets”, in Christian Astrology Modestly Treated of in Three Books. […], London: Printed by Tho[mas] Brudenell for John Partridge and Humph[rey] Blunden, […], →OCLC, page 85:

In ſhort, Ned has drank, wenched, fought, and beggared himſelf, through an exalted ſolicitude for the general emolument, and is now cloſe pent up in one of our priſons, out of a pure and diſintereſted regard for the welfare of ſociety.

1767, [Hugh Kelly], “Saturday, May 1”, in The Babler. Containing a Careful Selection from those Entertaining and Interesting Essays, which have Given the Public so much Satisfaction under that Title during a Course of Four Years, in Owen’s Weekly Chronicle, volume II, number LXVI, London: Printed for J[ohn] Newbery, […]; L. Hawes, W. Clarke, and R. Collins, […]; and J. Harrison, […], →OCLC:

I know a clergyman who, having enjoyed for several years the world's good opinion, was turned off, through a ridiculous pique, by a young nobleman to whom he was preceptor. […] He drank, wenched, and was so complete a gambler, that, had he kept his old situation much longer, he would have ruined the principles of his pupil.

1807 March, [Charles] Dibdin, “Dibdin’s Tour. [Letter 1 … Introductory.]”, in The Polyanthos, volume IV, Boston, Mass.: Published by J[oseph] T[inker] Buckingham, […], →OCLC, footnote, page 247:

This Dalgarno does not drink so much, or swear so much, as his father; but he wenches, Geordie, and he breaks his word and oath baith.

1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 231:

Bundy's reasons for leaving the Cape are obscure. He drinks, but that doesn't dim his powers. He wenches. But so do we all.

1972, Philip K[indred] Dick, chapter 1, in We Can Build You (DAW SF Books; no. 14), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperVoyager, HarperCollins, 2008, →ISBN, page 11:

Already, you see, I had begun to acquire a taste for rakery and wenching among the London debutantes.

1979 October, Roald Dahl, chapter 1, in My Uncle Oswald, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2011, →ISBN:

(intransitive, archaic, now humorous) To frequent prostitutes; to whore; also, to womanize.


slut

From Middle English slutt, slutte, slute (“a dirty or slovenly person, usually a woman, scullery maid; messy animal to prepare as food; slush, mud”), probably from Old English *slȳte (“sleet”), from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet, hail”), related to Proto-West Germanic *slaut (“puddle, ditch”). Compare Dutch slodder and slet, dialectal Swedish slata (“idle woman”), Norwegian sludd (“sleet”), and the dialectal Norwegian slutr (“sleet, impure liquid”). Doublet of sleet.

cog

You could hire a slut for a few hours, if you're that desperate.

(vulgar, often derogatory) A sexually promiscuous woman.

A sexually promiscuous woman.
A prostitute.


trick

From Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (“to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat”); > modern French tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (“to launch a shot at, play a trick on”), or one of its derivatives (e.g. Middle High German ūftrechen (“to do something to someone, hurt someone”), vertrechen (“to conceal, get over on someone”), zuotrechen (“to obtain falsely or deceitfully, wangle, finagle”), etc.); yet the Old French verb is equally likely to be derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin trīcor, trīcārī (“dodge, search for detours; haggle, quibble”).
The term has been connected to Middle Dutch treck, trec (“draw, line, desire, game move, cord, stratagem, ruse, trick”), from Middle Dutch trekken, trēken (“to pull, place, put, move”), from Old Dutch *trekken, *trekan (“to move, drag”), from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną (“to drag, scrape, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (“to drag, scrape”). If they are related, trick would be cognate with Low German trekken, Middle High German trecken, trechen, Danish trække, and Old Frisian trekka, Romanian truc and other Romance languages.
Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.

der

turn a trick

turn tricks

Across 110th street / Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh baby / Across 110th Street / You can find it all in the street

1972, Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street”, in Across 110th Street:

I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street.
Oh, she's a big girl, she's standing six-foot three,
Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city.

1975, “Island Girl”, in Bernie Taupin (lyrics), Rock of the Westies, performed by Elton John:

Perhaps the most important thing a prostitute learns is how to "manage" the client; how to con him into spending more money than he planned. Learning how to perform tricks takes only a few minutes. Learning how to "hustle" the client takes longer.

1988, John H. Lindquist, Misdemeanor Crime: Trivial Criminal Pursuit, page 43:

"How did you get into all this?" "I started doing tricks when I was young and I don't mean the magic circle. I learned about sex from an early age. There was nothing else to do in Pitsea except heavy petting and getting F grades at school."

2010, Richard Gill, Paloma Azul, page 139:

When he later asked her to strip and perform tricks for him, she refused, and he chased her away. She had similar experiences with other men until she eventually fell into prostitution: […]

2019, Julie S. Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag:

(slang) A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.


trick

en-verb

trick (third-person singular simple present tricks, present participle tricking, simple past and past participle tricked)

tricks (present singular third-person)
tricking (participle present)
tricked (participle past)
tricked (past)

1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
[…] and suddenly it was Maryellin, he & I in the bed. The guy was tall, lean & hard. Absolutely lovely body. For me, it was like my old tricking days.

Asked whether one possible way for lesbians to increase sexual satisfaction within a relationship would be to "trick" outside it, Pearlman said that this could be a "terrific turn-on" if done right, but that she generally wouldn't recommend it because of the high risk of jealousy and breakups.

1985 April 20, Betsy Duren, “Women's Studies Conference: Sex and Culture”, in Gay Community News, page 7:

To engage in prostitution or casual sex.


john

From the male given name John (q.v.), whose ubiquity led to extensive use of the name in generic contexts. Its use for toilets derives from John and Cousin John, which both probably relate to jacques and jakes, used in equivalent senses by the British and Irish.

The girls sat there while the johns (customers) moped around giving them the once-over.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 22:

Well she's black as coal, but she burn like a fire,
And she wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire.
You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake,
Oh oh, he one more gone, he one more john who make the mistake.

In the first part of the video, Thad sucks the john's cock and takes a load in his mouth.

2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 233:

In-calls, where the john comes to the prostitute’s residence, are prohibited.

2013, McLachlin CJ, Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford (2013 SCC 72), para. 62


ponce

tlb

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang)

Uncertain, but probably an aphetic form of French alphonse (“kept man”), from the male given name Alphonse. Also sometimes connected to pounce or French pensionnaire (“pensioner, person living without working”).

ncog

A man living off another's earnings, especially a woman's.

Synonym of pimp, especially one hired by a prostitute as a tout, bodyguard, and driver.

pimp

Thanks Don, see you Don, off to sunny Spain now Don, fuck off Don. Lying in your pool like a fat blob laughing at me, you think I'm gonna have that? You really think I'm gonna have that, ya ponce.

2000, Sexy Beast (motion picture), spoken by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley):

Synonym of poof: an effeminate gay man; any similarly effeminate man.


ponce

en-verb

ponce (third-person singular simple present ponces, present participle poncing, simple past and past participle ponced)

ponces (present singular third-person)
poncing (participle present)
ponced (participle past)
ponced (past)

To borrow (something) from somebody without returning it.


pug

Origin unknown, possibly related to West Flemish pugge (“(adjective) small; (noun) short person; pet name derived from the first name Pugge”); though it is uncertain whether sense 1 (“senses relating to someone or something small”) and sense 2 (“senses relating to people”) are derived from the same source.
Sense 1.8 (“small demon”) was probably influenced by, though not a variant of, puck.

pentu

any of various animals, such as a ferret, hare, squirrel, or young salmon

[R]emember the Lo[rd] Admyrall [Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham] and the Lord Threasurer [Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset] with a couple of Pugges or some vscough baugh [i.e., usquebaugh or whiskey] or some such toyes, it would shew that you do not neglect them, whoe, I protest, are to you wonderfull kynde.

1600 October 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Robert Cecil, “[Letter] X”, in John MacLean, editor, Letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Sir George Carew (Camden Series; 88), [London]: […] [John Bowyer Nichols and Sons] for the Camden Society, published 1864, →OCLC, page 33:

So euery lip has his Lettice to himſelfe: […] the VVeſterne-man his Pug, the Seruing-man his Punke, […]

1604 (first performance), Tho[mas] Dekker, Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], West-ward Hoe. […], London: […] [William Jaggard], and to be sold by Iohn Hodgets […], published 1607, →OCLC, Act II, signature D, recto:

In the vigor of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well mouthed wench.

1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How Gargantua was Carried Eleven Moneths in His Mothers Belly”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 1st book, page 17:

[C]ome, let's to bed—you Fubbs, you Pugg you—you little Puſs—Purree Tuzzey—I am a Senator.

1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act III, scene [i], page 25:

A mistress, or a female prostitute; also (generally, derogatory) a woman.


punter

She's working the streets like she does every night / Pulling in punters left and right

2007, “Suzanne”, in Paint it Blacker, performed by Plan B:

Everybody knows your mum is a whore / Getting 'round Piccadilly looking for willy / Punters pull up and say "don't be silly"

2016 March 7, “Road Rage (Freestyle)”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate):

The number of UK pubs is falling and there is less consensus about how punters should behave. Here’s a guide to getting the most out of a trip to the boozer[.]

2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A customer of a commercial establishment, frequently of a pub or (alternatively) of a prostitute.


drab

The origin of the noun is uncertain; compare Middle English drabelen, drablen, draplen (“to soil; make dirty; to drag on the ground or through mud”), and Low German drabbe (“dirt, mud”), drabbeln (“to soil”), and Old Norse drabba (“to make drab; make dirty”), the latter three ultimately from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb- (“to crush, grind; to kill”). The word is also likely to be related to Dutch drab (“dregs, sediment”), Irish drabog, Scottish Gaelic drabag (“dirty woman; slattern”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

повлекана

dirty or untidy woman — see also slattern

Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.

1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 166:

[T]hey ſay hee keepes a Troyan drab, and yſes the traytor Calcas tent, Ile after … —Nothing but letchery all incontinent varlots.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], lines 93–95:

Experience ſhewes, his Purſe ſhall ſoone grow light, / Whom Dice waſtes in the day, Drabs in the night: / Let all auoyde falſe Strumpets, Dice, and Drinke; / For hee that leaps in Mudde, ſhall quickly ſinke.

1611 December 27 (first performance), Io[hn] Cooke, Greenes Tu Quoque, or, The Cittie Gallant. […], printed at London: [By Nicholas Okes] for Iohn Trundle, published 1614, →OCLC:

Curs'd be the Wretch! ſo venal and ſo vain; / Paltry and proud, as drabs in Drury-lane.

1735, Alexander Pope, “[Satires of Dr. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s.] The Second Satire of Dr. John Donne.”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 49, lines 63–64:

Where the Red Lion ſtaring o'er the way, / Invites each paſſing ſtranger that can pay; / Where Calvert’s butt, and Parſon’s black champaign, / Regale the drabs and bloods of Drury-lane; [...]

a. 1775, Oliver Goldsmith, “A Description of an Author’s Bed-chamber”, in Poems and Plays. […], new corrected edition, London: Printed for Messrs. Price [et al.], published 1785, →OCLC, page 10:

With these counsels, and many others equally valuable, did Papa Wick fortify Bobby ere that last awful night at Portsmouth when the Officers' Quarters held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle raged from the Dockyard Gates even to the slums of Longport, while the drabs of Fratton came down and scratched the faces of the Queen's Officers.

1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 135:

Ineffable sarcasm underlined the word 'bride', suggesting that Mrs Mudge must be a drab who had married for respectability.

1957, Frank Swinnerton, The Woman from Sicily, London: Hutchinson, →OCLC, page 194:

(dated) A promiscuous woman, a slut; a prostitute.


flap

From Middle English flap, flappe (“a slap; blow; buffet; fly-flap; something flexible or loose; flap”), related to Saterland Frisian Flappert (“wing, flipper”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a blow; slap on the face; fly-flap; flap”) (modern Dutch flap (“flap”)), Middle Low German flabbe, vlabbe, flebbe, from the verb (see below). Related also to English flab and flabby.

Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. […] Come hither, you foule flappes.


tart

en-verb

tart (third-person singular simple present tarts, present participle tarting, simple past and past participle tarted)

tarts (present singular third-person)
tarting (participle present)
tarted (participle past)
tarted (past)

From a rebracketing of sweetheart, or from jam tart (“attractive woman”) by shortening.


track

→ Kashubian: trak (Canada)

From Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.

gloss

"line, row, series"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">trek</i> (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)

cog

A real pimp is a gentleman, but these are pimps in gorilla suits. They hang around pimps, they have hoes on the track working for them, they may even look like pimps, but they are straight simps.

2012, Pimpin' Ken, PIMPOLOGY: The 48 Laws of the Game, page 11:

After putting Tonya Down on the track, we headed to this club called the Players Club.

2012, Paul D. Jones, Twilight Nights: The Trials and Tribulations of the Game, page 130:

(slang) The street, as a prostitute's place of work.


tweak

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

inh

Thence to Bautree, as I came there,
 From the bushes near the lane, there
 Rush'd a tweak in gesture flanting
 With a leering eye, and wanton:
 But my flesh I did subdue it
 Fearing lest my purse should rue it.

1638, Richard Brathwait, edited by Thomas Gent, Barnabae Itinerarium; or Drunken Barnaby's four journeys to the north of England: In Latin and English metre, published 1852, page 113:


brimstone

en-noun

brimstone (countable and uncountable, plural brimstones)

From Middle English brymston, brimston, bremston, forms of brinston, brenston, bernston, from Old English brynstān (“brimstone”, literally “burn-stone”), equivalent to brian + stone, or burn + stone. Cognate with Scots brunstane (“brimstone”), Icelandic brennisteinn (“sulfur / sulphur, brimstone”), German Bernstein (“amber”). Compare also brimfire. More at burn, stone. Although once a synonym for sulfur, the word is now restricted to Biblical usage. Internet sense originates from Soyjak.party as an intensified variant of coal.

cog

I went to the park, picked up a low Brimstone, called myself a Barber, & agreed with her for Sixpence, went to the bottom of the park, arm in arm, & dipped my machine in the Canal […].

1763, James Boswell, edited by Gordon Turnbull, London Journal 1762-1763, Penguin, published 2014, page 237:


outlaw

From Middle English outlawe, outlagh, utlaȝe, from Old English ūtlaga (“outlaw”), borrowed from Old Norse útlagi (“outlaw, fugitive”), equivalent to out- + law. Cognate with Icelandic útlagi (“outlaw”).

Without a pimp, she was an "outlaw," likely to be harassed, or threatened with assault or robbery on the street.

1977, Joseph Julian, Social Problems, page 463:

She was an outlaw. Chance is doing some double-checking to see if she had a pimp nobody knew about, but it doesn't look likely.

2010, Lawrence Block, Eight Million Ways To Die:

(slang) A prostitute who works alone, without a pimp.


quiff

How would I get an African toothache when the closest I been to a quiff in over a month is sitting next to one?

1949, John O'Hara, A Rage to Live, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 193:

(slang) A young girl, especially as promiscuous; a prostitute.


seraglio

seraglios (plural)
serraglio (alternative)

/səˈɹæɡliːoʊ/

From Italian serraglio, from Vulgar Latin *serrāculum, from a late form of Latin serāre (“lock up, close”), from sera (“lock, bolt”). The Italian word was used (because of phonetic similarity) to translate Turkish saray (palace). Compare serai, serail.

The sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines (odalisques) in a Turkish Muslim household.


hoon

Capricornia (novel)
Kelmscott, Western Australia
The Australian National Dictionary
Xavier Herbert

Uncertain; used initially as a general term of abuse. It first appeared in print in Capricornia (1938) by Australian writer Xavier Herbert (1901–1984); in a 1941 letter Herbert stated he had heard the term in his youth.

'You flash hoon,' he went on, 'Kiddin' you're white, eh?[…].'

1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia: A Novel, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) A worthless person; a hooligan or lout.


strumpet

From Middle English strumpet, strompet, strumpett. Further origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch strompen (“to stalk”) or strompe (“stocking”); or Late Latin stuprum (“violation”) or stuprare (“to violate”).

He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of Iealousie, Fear, Sorrow, Suspition, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking Up, Oathes, Trials, Lawes, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610:

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat; Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat; O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet! Our god is marching on!

1900, Mark Twain, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated:

However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.

1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:


mermaid

From Middle English mermayde (“maid of the sea”), from mere (“sea, lake”) + maid, equivalent to mer- + maid. Cognate with Dutch meermeid (“mermaid”), Middle High German mermaget, mermeit (“mermaid”, > German Meermagd, Meermädchen (“mermaid”)). Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”).

inh

A Gentleman or an honeſt Cittizen, ſhall not Sit in your pennie-bench Theaters, vvith his Squirrell by his ſide cracking nuttes; nor ſneake into a Tauerne vvith his Mermaid; but he ſhall be Satyr'd and Epigram'd vpon, and his humour muſt run vpo'th Stage: […]

1601 (first performance), Thomas Dekker, Satiro-mastix. Or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet. […], London: […] [Edward Allde] for Edward White, […], published 1602, →OCLC, signature H2, recto:


brothel

Short for brothel-house (“house of prostitution”), from brothel (“a wretch; scoundrel; lecher; harlot; prostitute”) + house, influenced by bordel. For more on brothel (“a wretch”), see below.

Thus, during the last four years, I have visited brothels about every ten days or two weeks. Only seldom does coitus fail; for I have learned my peculiarities, and in the choice of a prostitute know immediately whether she will excite me or have no effect.

1893, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, “Congenital Homo-sexuality”, in Charles Gilbert Chaddock, transl., Psychopathia Sexualis, The F. A. Davis Co., page 245:

Only women already existing in the social margins became actresses.²⁶ For example, celebrated tragedienne Elizabeth Barry was an orphan, Nell Gwynn a barmaid raised in a brothel, Moll Davis the illegitimate daughter of a Colonel. Other actresses were the wives and daughters of male actors, as for example Mary Saunderson (Mrs Betterton) and (in a later period) Mrses Kean, Kemble and Siddons.

2003, Rob Baum, Female Absence: Women, Theatre, and Other Metaphors, Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 89:


gill

Clipping of gillian, from the female name Gillian.

Gill comes from the Knight, that did so seek / To gaine her love; she's hir'd for a week.

1646, Humphrey Mill, “Section XXI”, in The Nights Search, Part 2, page 129:


dollymop

Those women who, for the sake of distinguishing them from the professionals, I must call amateurs, are generally spoken of as “Dollymops.” Now many servant-maids, nurse-maids who go with children into the Parks, shop girls and milliners who may be met with at the various “dancing academies,” so called, are “Dollymops.” We must separate these latter again from the “Demoiselle de Comptoir,” who is just as much in point of fact a “Dollymop,” because she prostitutes herself for her own pleasure, a few trifling presents or a little money now and then, and not altogether to maintain herself.

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

(slang, British) An amateur, often part-time, female prostitute in 19th-century London.


minx

PIE word
 *ǵʰmṓ
The origin of the noun is uncertain. The following possible derivations have been suggested:
* A variation of minikin (“(obsolete) young person, especially a young woman; small or insignificant person, thing, or amount”) + a variation of -s (suffix forming hypocoristic nouns (nicknames)) (compare minckins, a variant of minikin).
* From Dutch mens, mensch (“human being, person; (derogatory, informal) woman”) (obsolete), Middle Dutch minsc, minsce, minsch; or from German Low German minsch, minsk, Middle Low German minsche (“hussy, wench”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”, adjective), from *mann- (“human being, person; man”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”), *men- (“to mind; to think; spiritual activity”), or *mon- (“human being; man”)) + *-iskaz (suffix meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-minx.wav

Well, yet at length the houre came that flattered him with grace, / Who all too haſtie hide him ſelfe to his appointed place. / Arrived there, a pretie minx (directed wel before) / Unto a lodging brought this lord, and locked faſt the dore. / When he was ſafe, awaye ſhe went, for joy Alberto hopt, / But ſee, a chaunge! too late he ſpyde he was in priſon popt. / The windowes made of yron barres, the walles of ſtone and clay, / A bed he found, but farre unfit he thought for Venus play.

1576, George Whetstone, “The Arbour of Vertue, […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, pages 164–165:

[W]hat did you meane by that ſame handkercher, you gaue mee euen now? […] this is ſome minxes token, and I muſt take out the worke; there, giue it the hobby horſe, whereſoeuer you had it, I'le take out no worke on't.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 65:

If thou be abſent long, thy wife then thinkes, / Th'art drunke, at eaſe, or with ſome pretty minkes, / 'Tis well with thee, or elſe beloued of ſome, / Whil'ſt ſhee poore ſoule doth fare full ill at home.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Causes of Iealousie, Who are Most Apt. […]”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 1, subsection 2, page 469:

They are a couple of alluring wanton Minxes.

1677 (date written), John Dryden, The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:

He to his ardent love ſhall win the fair, / From beauty's queen, to her who ſcrubs the ſtair, / From the Kept-miſtreſs, or the Counteſs vain, / Down to the tawdry Minx in Drury Lane.

1760, J. Copywell [pseudonym; William Woty], “Money. A Fragment of an Intended Parody.”, in The Shrubs of Parnassus. Consisting of a Variety of Poetical Essays, Moral and Comic, London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 142:

For my part, if I understand these sphinxes, / These living riddles called Olympian Gods, / I think they are in love with mortal minxes; / (It would not be the only time by odds;) […]

1864, England’s Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems which were Awarded the One Hundred Guineas Offered as Prizes in the Advertisement “Ho! For a Shakespeare!” which Appeared about the Time of Shakespeare’s Tercentenary Anniversary, London: Day and Son, […], →OCLC, section I (Pallas Athené and Venus at Breakfast with Juno, in One of Her Apartments), page 12:

There wasn't an Archimandrite of Dane's Island and the townlands nor a minx from the Isle of Woman […] would come next or nigh him, […]

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part III, page 496:

Tragically forgot to take drying washing down off rack over Aga and a pair of my very large knickers was perilously close to brushing the top of his hair as he came in. […] I quickly swapped them with a pair of ELDEST's teeny-weeny ones, so he thinks he might be marrying into a family of sex minxes who stay that way well into middle age.

2009, Judith Holder, “January”, in The Secret Diary of a Grumpy Old Woman: AKA A Year in Big Knickers, London: Hachette UK, published 2011, →ISBN:

(derogatory, dated) A promiscuous woman; also, a mistress (“the other woman in an extramarital relationship”) or a prostitute.


yellow card

→ Japanese: イエローカード (ierōkādo)

→ Korean: 옐로카드 (yellokadeu)

/ˈjɛl.əʊ ˌkɑːd/


stew

en-noun

stew (usually uncountable, plural stews)

→ Japanese: シチュー (shichū)

From Middle English stewe, stue, from Anglo-Norman estouve, Old French estuve (“bath, bathhouse”) (modern French étuve), from Medieval Latin stupha, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Vulgar Latin *extufāre, from ex- + Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “smoke, steam”), from τύφω (túphō, “to smoke”). See also Italian stufare, Portuguese estufar. Compare also Old English stuf-bæþ (“a hot-air bath, vapour bath”); see stove.

cog

But it was so plotted betwixt the Lady, her Husband, and Bristol, that instead of that beauty, he had a notorious Stew sent him, and surely his carriage there was so lascivious...

1650, Anthony Weldon, The Court and Character of King James I:


walker

→ Irish: válcaeir

→ Persian: واکر (vâker)

From Middle English walkere (“one who walks, traveller”), equivalent to walk + -er.

inh

I would ask for the pleasure of your company, Mr. Knightley, but I am a very slow walker, and my pace would be tedious to you; and, besides, you have another long walk before you, to Donwell Abbey.

1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 118:

We hired a walker for the dogs during the day.

2005, Carlo De Vito, 10 Secrets My Dog Taught Me: Life Lessons from a Man's Best Friend, page 88:

A distracted walker also may be missing an opportunity to bond with their dog, says Burch of the American Kennel Club. “Interacting and having fun together forms a bond that can last a lifetime,” she says.

2023 July 2, Brandon Griggs, “We’re multitasking while walking our dogs. Animal experts say this is a problem”, in CNN:

To better help you in your quest, we asked multiple podiatrists and seasoned long-distance walkers exactly what to look for when selecting the best walking shoes.

2024 September 6, Isla Harvey, “The 10 most comfortable walking shoes, according to podiatrists and shoe experts”, in CNN:

The agent noun of to walk: a person who walks or a thing which walks, especially a pedestrian or a participant in a walking race.

(cricket) A batsman or batswoman who directly walks off the field when out without waiting for the umpire's decision.

A single mother of three, Rachel is what Facebook users call as ^([sic]) “walker,” or an online sex worker. Using a dummy account, she posts her sexy photos and informs page visitors that she’s available for sex in exchange for money.

2019 June 22, Charisse Ursal, “Social media lures young people to engage in sex for money”, in Philippine Daily Inquirer:

(Philippines) A prostitute, streetwalker.


working girl

From working + girl. First use appears c. 1620, in the publications of Thomas Shelton.

It was still September / When your daddy was quite surprised / To find you with the working girls / In the county jail

1973, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, “My Old School”, in Countdown to Ecstasy, performed by Steely Dan:

(idiomatic, euphemistic) A female prostitute.


bangtail

bangtails (plural)
bang tail (alternative)
bang-tail (alternative)

From bang + tail. The primary meaning refers to the sense bang (“fringe of hair cut across the forehead”).


all-nighter

all-nighters (plural)
allnighter (alternative)
all nighter (alternative)

From all-night + -er = all- + night + -er.

That party was an all-nighter.

Something that lasts throughout the whole night.

(specifically) An instance of studying or working throughout the night without sleep.

(UK, crime, slang) A session with a prostitute covering the entire night.

(UK, crime, slang) A client of a prostitute who has paid for the entire night.

(US, crime, slang) A criminal or other person kept in jail over night.


trollop

Origin uncertain; apparently connected with the Middle English trollen (“to go about, stroll, roll from side to side”). Ostensibly influenced, if not derived, in some way by a word from Old Norse trǫll (“troll, witch, mage, monster, etc.”).

der

Many an unfortunate Tuppenny trollop has gone from the old hag's den to the special ward at Little Bay, but not before the fell disease of the harlotic slums has been spread broadcast among the reckless patrons.

1903 February 8, The Truth, Sydney, page 3, column 4:

However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.

1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:

Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433:

slet

woman of a vulgar and discourteous disposition


bordello

en-noun

bordello (plural bordellos or bordelloes)

/bɔː(ɹ)ˈdɛləʊ/

From Italian bordello. Distantly related to brothel, through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carve, cut, split, rub”). Doublet of bordel.

der

“You know, this house does have a belfry filled with local bats. Maybe Laszlo went up there.” “Oh, so like my darling perverted husband, to sniff out the local bordello immediately upon arrival. [chuckles] Could you take me to the belfry?”

2023 August 31, William Meny & Paul Simms, “A Weekend at Morrigan Manor” (9:33 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):


lady abbess

That Lady Abbess of all secret sin. / Swears that she is so lean and ugly grown, / She will not pass with her for half a crown, / Yet Stamford's countess does admire her wit, / But likes it most because 'tis lewdly writ.

ca 1670–80, ?, Description of a Poetress

The Lady Abbess took leave of her young Probationer, to dispatch some affairs of her own elsewhere; having promised to return next morning about the same Hour she had done that day.

1683, Ferrante Pallavicino, The Whores Rhetorick, pages 128–129:

This is our College, Madam; and these are the Students: Or rather, Madam, this is a Nunnery, and I am Lady Abbess.

And whenever any She-member could convert a Proselite, and bring her over from a vertuous Life to be willing to embrace that earthly Tabernacle, Man, for such excellent Service done to the Church of Venus, she was to receive ten Shillings of the Mother of the Maids, provided the Conformist was under twenty Years of Age, had a tollerable Share of Beauty, and either was, or could confidently put herself into the Hands of the old Matron, as a Virgo intacta, and would submit herself to be dispos'd on by her as should me most agreeable to their united Interest; the Lady-Abbess of the Brothel Monastry never wanting among the Salacious Quality of her old Acquaintance; a Gouty Courtier, or some rich over-grown Officer, to be ready-money Chapmen for any of her Punchable Nuns, who had not, as yet, broken the brittle Vow of Female Chastity.

1756, ?, A compleat and humorous account of all the remarkable clubs and societies, seventh edition, page 270

(rare, obsolete, euphemistic) A bawd, the mistress of a brothel.


fancy man

fancy men (plural)
fancy-man (alternative)
fancyman (alternative)

(UK, dated slang) Synonym of ponce (“a pimp hired by a prostitute”).


bludge

en-verb

bludge (third-person singular simple present bludges, present participle bludging, simple past and past participle bludged)

bludges (present singular third-person)
bludging (participle present)
bludged (participle past)
bludged (past)

(Australia, obsolete, slang) To live off the earnings of a prostitute.

kaimātai

to live off the generosity of someone else


call girl

→ Cebuano: call girl

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-call girl.wav

(informal) A female prostitute who is hired by telephone.


bully

en-noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy.
The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.

onomatopoeic

expressive


escort

Borrowed from French escorte, itself borrowed from Italian scorta.

Of the 68 women, 26 reported that they had worked on the streets and as an escort over the course of their career as a prostitute, 18 exclusively as a street prostitute, and 8 as an escort only (i.e., working for an escort service).

2014, Jeffrey T. Parsons, Contemporary Research on Sex Work, page 87:

Every escort has at least one or two regular clients; they are our bread and butter.

2017, Samantha X, Back on Top: Confessions of a High-Class Escort, Hachette, →ISBN:

(somewhat euphemistic) A sex worker who does not operate in a brothel, but with whom clients make appointments; a call girl or male equivalent; a pimp.


manwhore

manwhores (plural)
man-whore (alternative)
man whore (alternative)

A schmo who finds love by prostituting himself is...rather sweet in a sophomoric, manwhore-with-a-heart-of-gold kind of way.

1999 December 10, Michael O'Sullivan, “Not Just a 'Gigolo'”, in Washington Post:

He's a man-whore, Paige. He seduces women for money. He seduced you and countless married women without any care for the consequences.

2006, Farrell Kaye, Helltown: The Adventures of the Midnight Man, page 217:

(slang, occasionally vulgar) A man who has sex with clients for money; a male prostitute.

面首

a man who sells his body for money; a male prostitute


floozie

floozies (plural)
floozy (alternative)
floosy (alternative)
floosie (alternative)
floogy (alternative)

Corruption of flossy in the sense of showy.

A bunch of ugly-looking gangsters had taken the joint over for a big party, and they were all wobbling around the floor with their floozies, so drunk they could hardly stand.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “If You Can’t Make Money”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 3 (1928–1935: The Big Apple), page 183:

«Sure thing. You going with that little Mexican floozy?»

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:

Now I was a forsaken codger snuffling disgracefully from a beautiful floozy's abuse.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 418:

[T]he lead singer found his girlfriend bumping uglies in the dark with the roadie. But then said singer was with a blonde floozie himself—see what being on an L.A. trash-band bill can do to ya?

1984 September 27, Serena, “L.A. Dee Da: On The Streets”, in L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles, page 46:

A vulgar or sexually promiscuous woman; a hussy or slattern.

There are refugees and black marketers, defrocked bankers and resistance fighters, gamblers, floozies, French colonial policemen, American and Spanish entertainers, and, eventually, Nazi officers (who in reality never set foot in Casablanca).

2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:

A prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets.


hustle

en-noun

hustle (countable and uncountable, plural hustles)

From Dutch husselen or by metathesis from Dutch hutselen (“to shake up”), a frequentative of hutsen (“to stir, to move something (back and forth)”).

Little Joe never once gave it away / Everybody had to pay and pay / A hustle here and a hustle there / New York City's the place

1972, Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side”:


world's oldest profession

the world's oldest profession (plural not attested)

the world's oldest profession (canonical)
oldest profession in the world (alternative)
oldest profession (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-world's oldest profession.wav

First appears c. 1888, coined by Rudyard Kipling as most ancient profession in the world. Alternative forms appeared in the early 1900s, present form popular by the 1930s. Similar terms with various senses (not necessarily prostitution) exist in other languages.

Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “On the City Wall”, in In Black and White:

(literal translation) 世界上最古老的職業 /世界上最古老的职业 (shìjiè shàng zuì gǔlǎo de zhíyè)

(literal translation) อาชีพที่เก่าแก่ที่สุดในโลก


harlot

From Middle English harlot, from Old French harlot, herlot, arlot (“vagabond; tramp”), of obscure origin. Likely to be ultimately of Germanic origin, either from a derivation of *harjaz (“army; camp; warrior; military leader”) or from a diminutive of *karilaz (“man; fellow”). Compare English carlot.

This day (great Duke) ſhe ſhut the doores vpon me, / While she with Harlots feaſted in my housſe.

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 98, lines 204-205:

The bastard of a harlot, born in a brothel, suckled on gin, and familiar from earliest infancy with all the bestialities of debauch,[…]

1890, William Booth, chapter 6, in In Darkest England and the Way Out:

Truly, My Satan, thou art but a Dunce, / And dost not know the Garment from the Man. / Every Harlot was a Virgin once, / Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan.

1908, William Blake, To the Accuser Who Is the God of This World:

He was stopped by a painted harlot, who put her hand on his arm; he pushed her violently away with brutal words.

1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

O fine religious, decent folk, / In Virtue’s flaunting gold and scarlet, / I sneer between two puffs of smoke,— / Give me the publican and harlot.

1918, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Hail! Childish Slaves Of Social Rules”, in New Poems and Variant Readings, London: Chatto & Windus:

Charlotte the Harlot show me your legs, / Charlotte the Harlot take me to bed. / Charlotte the Harlot let me see blood, / Charlotte the Harlot let me see love.

1980, Dave Murray, “Charlotte the Harlot”, in Iron Maiden, performed by Iron Maiden:

(derogatory, offensive, dated) A female prostitute.


house of ill repute

house of ill repute (plural houses of ill repute)


pornocracy

/pɔːˈnɒkɹəsɪ/

Alfred Edersheim
Bartolomeo Platina
Bzovius
Pope Sergius III

Probably borrowed from German Pornokratie, first found in the writings of Austrian-born Biblical scholar Alfred Edersheim (1825–1889), from Ancient Greek πόρνη (pórnē, “female prostitute”) + -κρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (-krătĭ́ā, “-cracy”, suffix indicating “government, rule”); analysable as porno- + -cracy.

refn

Bartolomeo Platina, Onofrio Panvinio, Antonio Cicarelli, Giovanni Stringa, Abraamo Bzovio [i.e., Abraham Bzowski, known as Bzovius] with Antonio Bagatta and Nicol'Angelo Caferri (1663) Le vite de’ pontefici di Bartolomeo Platina: dal Saluator Nostro fino a Paolo II. Accresciute con quelle de’ papi da Sisto Quarto fino ad Alessandro VII., da Onofrio Panuinio, Antonio Cicarelli, Giouanni Stringa, Abraamo Bzouio e Antonio Bagatta. Con le annotationi del Panuinio, e con la Cronologia ecclesiastica dello stesso. Aggiuntoui la vita del Platina scritta dal Sign. Nicol’Angelo Caferri [The Lives of the Popes of Bartolomeo Platina: From Our Saviour to Paul II. Augmented with those of the Popes from Sixtus IV to Alexander VII, by Onofrio Panvinio, Antonio Cicarelli, Giovanni Stringa, Abraham Bzowski, and Antonio Bagatta. With the Annotations of Panvinio, and with the Ecclesiastical Chronology of the Same. Supplemented with the Life of Platina Written by Sign. Nicol’Angelo Caferri], Venice: Presso Gio, Maria Turrini, e Gio, Pietro Brigonci, →OCLC.

der

[Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon had a consistent—many have called it reactionary—preference for smaller and more personalized social units. His passionate defense of the traditional rural family (and attendant hatred of the “pornocracy” of Paris) was part of a relentless localism that tended to prefer Burgundy to France, Franche Comité to Burgundy, and the individual family and village to Franche Comité.

1980, James H[adley] Billington, “Schism: Marx vs. Proudhon”, in Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN; republished New Brunswick, N.J., London: Transaction Publishers, 1998 (2009 printing), →ISBN, book II (The Dominance of the National Revolutionaries: The Mid-nineteenth Century), page 301:

Even in the confident era of bourgeois patriarchy prior to 1848, actresses had ben, at best, disgraced women who might atone for their mistakes through self-sacrifice. In the three ensuing decades, fear of pornocracy had run high. Could views of theater women transcend fears of sexual indulgence and seduction so that actresses might become honored citizens? Would they ever take their places as members of the second sex along with bourgeois wives and mothers? Improbable before 1880, these changes were realized under the Third Republic.

2001, Lenard R. Berlanstein, “Imagining Republican Actresses, 1880–1914”, in Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siècle, Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 159:

The [Dead Sea] Scrolls' visions, like those of latter-day apocalyptists Jim Jones and David Koresh, of Islamic jihad and West Bank Kahanists, can become pornocracies of violence, acted out with a horrifying relish for blood.

2006 October, John Lamb Lash, quoting Neil Asher Silberman, “Messianic Madness”, in Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief, White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:

No legitimate questions concerning the abuses by pornocracies are now permitted, for those rulers who prostitute their ethical and moral values for a handful of gold and a bunch of dilapidated dwellings are only fit to shovel shit from one ship to another.

2014, Defassa, “The Meaning of Words”, in Masculism, Rothersthorpe, Northamptonshire: Defassa; Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

It now rather unmistakably appears that pornocracy is the name that should be given to the Governments of both Great Britain and the United Sates of America in the twentieth century - and before - but the latest century will do for the enlightenment of the misindoctrinated young men and women of today.

2017, Rosine de Bounevialle, The Candour A.B.C. of Politics, page 87:

(derogatory, often figuratively) A government by, or dominated by, prostitutes or corrupt persons.


gigolo

North Levantine Arabic: جغل (jagal)

/ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/

/ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.ləʊ/

/ˈʒɪɡ.ə.ləʊ/

First attested in English in 1922. From French gigolo (“young lover kept by an older woman”), first attested in that sense in 1904 (attested since 1850 in the sense “Amant de cœur, compagnon d'une gigolette", and since 1894 in the sense “elegant young man whose means of livelihood are dubious”), a back-formation from gigolette (“promiscuous dancing girl, girl available for hire as a dancing partner”), attested since 1850, from giguer (“to dance”), from gigue (“fiddle; type of dance; jig”). More at jig.

bor

A man who has a sexual relationship with a woman from whom he receives payment; a prostitute.

دَاعِر

male having sexual relationships for money


child prostitution

The use of a child by others for sexual activities in return for remuneration or any other form of consideration.

børneprostitution

use of a child for sexual activities for profit


hetaera

hetaerae (plural)
hetaeras (plural)
hetaira (alternative)
hetæra (alternative)

From Ancient Greek ἑταίρᾱ (hetaírā), feminine of ἑταῖρος (hetaîros, “companion”).

But of course our friend is only a shallow twentieth-century reproduction of the great hetairae of the past, the type to which she belongs without knowing it, Lais, Charis and the rest...

(historical, Ancient Greece) A highly cultivated hired female companion who would entertain upper-class male clients and might perform sex acts for them.

Woman is dethroned as the primary and supreme sex, debased into inseminable hetaera.

1971, Gottfried Benn, E. B. Ashton, Primal vision: selected writings:

Christ appeared, only to reveal himself as the naked god Pan. Ballet of hetaerae and houris, choreography by Italo Castaldi.


jane

The Swedish system, seemingly, does not target “janes” (female clients of sex workers).

2014 March 4, Justin Ling, “Opposition parties shy away from sex-work debate”, in Xtra:


coaster

From coast (“edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Coast is derived from Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; compass direction; direction; location with reference to direction, side”) [and other forms], from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *kost-.

navegador (de costas)

sailor who travels only in coastal waters

I think you can say this much, that from these traces of callus I'd venture she was once a ballet dancer—and later got her living otherwise—as a coaster perhaps.

1932, [Francis] Van Wyck Mason, The Branded Spy Murders, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 65:

Gently again, he raised his hand to tap on the smooth white panels of the coaster’s door, but once more his interview with Ruby Braunfeld was postponed.

1933, [Francis] Van Wyck Mason, The Shanghai Bund Murders, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 51:

Once engaged to be married, Lily and Doc [in the film Shanghai Express (1932)] have been separated for more than five years because of Doc's jealous reaction to a ploy Lily had used to test his love. They meet, by chance, on the Shanghai Express. Lily has become a "coaster", a vamp who travels along the China coast looking for men to victimize, and Doc has thrown himself into his work as a British medical officer.

1993, Gina Marchetti, “The Threat of Captivity: The Bitter Tea of General Yen and Shanghai Express”, in Romance and the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Romance, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 59:

I have studied your astrological chart and it fills me with more concern than hatred. If you stay in China, I fear you will end up a coaster.

2000, Charles Busch, Shanghai Moon: A Comic Melodrama, New York, N.Y., London: Samuel French, →ISBN:

(slang, dated) A prostitute, especially one of European descent, plying her trade in Chinese port towns.


hustler

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hustler.wav

A male prostitute who sells his services to men.

面首

a male prostitute who sells his services to men


whorehouse

whorehouses (plural)
whore-house (alternative)

From Middle English horehous, equivalent to whore + house. Cognate with Dutch hoerenhuis (“whorehouse”), German Hurenhaus (“whorehouse”), Danish horehus (“whorehouse”), Swedish horhus (“whorehouse”), Icelandic hóruhús (“whorehouse; brothel”).


chippy

I manage to pick up a living in spite of the damn chippies. I don't see why the hell they don't go into the business regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free.

a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:

Don't worry chippy, nobodys gonna hurtya. Maybe fuckya a little[…]

1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 52:

$80 for a chippy? I can get a goddamn horse for $50!

1971, Robert Altman, Brian McKay, 00:17:46 from the start, in McCabe & Mrs. Miller:

I give the pictures of the wife and the lawn boy to the husband. I give the pictures of the husband and the chippy to the wife.

2004, William Lashner, chapter I, in Fatal Flaw, →ISBN, page 280:

Canby hints that, even with chippies, sexual intercourse was rare; even putting aside his complete lack of regard for the chippy as an actual human being, however, this passage makes clear that whatever did occur with these chippies may not have been as consensual as he presumed.⁷²

2008, Nicholas L. Syrett, chapter C, in The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, →ISBN, page 176:

When Victor Laszlo leads the demoralized French in the “Marseilles^([sic – meaning Marseillaise]),” and even Yvonne, the chippy who is sleeping with a Nazi officer, joins in, the stoniest intellectual collapses in tears.

2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:

(slang, Western US) A prostitute or promiscuous woman.

In due time a nest-full of little chippies appear to be nourished with insectiverous^([sic]) food from a parental beak until fledged and able to look after themselves.

1902, Henry Harrison Metcalf, John Norris McClintock, The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire magazine devoted to history, biography, literature, and state progress, volume 32, page 385:

Surely no young chippy was ever so stout and so emphatic as this bird.
The funny part of it all is that the starling appears to make the chippies do whatever it pleases.

1908, Alice Lounsberry, chapter I, in The Garden Book for Young People, page 139:

How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it spend the winter?

1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 88:


commoner

From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common + -er.

O behold this ring / Whose high respect and rich validity / Did lack a parallel; yet for all that / He gave it to a commoner o'th' camp, / If I be one.

c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, act 5, scene 3, lines 191–195:


whoredom

en-noun

whoredom (usually uncountable, plural whoredoms)

From Middle English horedom, hordom, from Old Norse hórdómr, ultimately corresponding to whore + -dom. Cognate with Swedish hordom (“whoredom”), Middle Dutch hoerdom (“whoredom”).

And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 38:24:

Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

Force not your slave-girls to whoredom that ye may seek enjoyment of the life of the world, if they would preserve their chastity.

1930, Pickthall, Marmaduke, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, translation of The Qur'an, surah 24, verse 33:

the most enthusiastic punishers of whoredom were often the most evangelical Protestants, who sought the ever-further purification of society (‘Puritans’, as they came to be called in England).

2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 14:

The state of being a whore, prostitution; sexual indulgence, fornication.


courtesan

courtesans (plural)
courtezan (alternative)

Borrowed from Middle French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano (“courtier”), from corte (“court”), itself from Latin cohors.

What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?

1909, Charles Baudelaire, “The Irreparable”, in John Collings Squire, transl., Poems and Baudelaire Flowers:

In the notes he wrote for Nana, his novel about a courtesan in Second Empire Paris, Zola imagined ‘a whole society hurling itself’ at her body, ‘a pack of hounds after a bitch, who is not even on heat and makes fun of the hounds following her’. This might also describe the life of Harriette Wilson, whose unguarded pursuit by the leaders of the British aristocracy, the army, the government and opposition made her the most desired, and then the most dangerous, woman in Regency London.

2014, Frances Wilson, The Courtesan's Revenge, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 10:

A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.


almah

almah (plural almahs or almah or awalim)

almahs (plural)
almah (plural)
awalim (plural)
alma (alternative)
alme (alternative)
almeh (alternative)

Ultimately from Arabic عَالِمَة (ʕālima, “singer”), originally a feminine adjective meaning ‘learned, knowledgeable’, from عَلِمَ (ʕalima, “to know”).

Nostalgia is almah, the Arab dancing girl. She tells me stories of the drowned, the deadest of this world's dead.

1998, Hélène Cixous, translated by Catherine Gillivray, Firstdays of the Year, Minnesota, page 157:

An Egyptian female singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment; sometimes a prostitute.


on the loose

Those who have had good nursing, and all that, and the advantages of a sound education, who have a position to lose, prospects to blight, and relations to dishonour, may be blamed for going on the loose, but I’ll be hanged if I think that priest or moralist is to come down on me with the sledge-hammer of their denunciation.

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

Many doctors practising in large cities dwell on the difficulty of checking clandestine prostitution, which is unfortunately on the increase in all crowded centres, where numbers of women are on the loose, over whom the police have little or no hold.

1868, The Indian Medical Gazette, volume 3, page 21:

(slang, archaic) Earning a living by prostitution.


lady of the night

lady of the night (plural ladies of the night)

They call her the lady of the night
She's a woman of the world
And easy-living girl with love for sale
That's what they call her, the lady of the night.

1976, Donna Summer, Lady of the Night (song)


red-light district

red-light district (plural red-light districts)

red-light districts (plural)
red light district (alternative)

Canadian French: red light m

→ German: Rotlichtviertel (calque)

desc

→ Chinese: 紅燈區 /红灯区 (hóngdēngqū) (calque)

From red, light and district. Referring to the red lights that were used as signs for brothels.

A part of an urban area where prostitution and sex-oriented businesses are concentrated.


gamester

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gamester.wav

She's impudent my Lord, / And was a common gameſter to the Campe.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 252, column 2, lines 187–188:

(obsolete) A prostitute; one who is on the game.


escort agency

A company that provides customers with companions for a fee, usually for sexual services, which services are not performed on company premises.


streetwalker

streetwalkers (plural)
street walker (alternative)

(informal, derogatory) A prostitute who looks for customers on the streets and in other public places.

уличница

prostitute who looks for clients on the streets


massage parlour

en-noun

massage parlour (plural massage parlours)

massage parlours (plural)
massage parlor (alternative)

(British) Alternative spelling of massage parlor.


massage parlor

massage parlors (plural)
massage parlour (alternative)

A place that offers a happy ending (a hand job) after the massage; a front organization for a brothel.


cathouse

cathouses (plural)
cat-house (alternative)
cat house (alternative)

Do you know how he spent years watching the droopy chicks in cathouses, listening to his cellmates moaning low behind the bars […]?

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Don’t Cry, Ma”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 5:


short time

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-short time.wav

Ok, so what is short time? One young bar ladies’ explanation always comes to mind when asked this question. “You come, I go!” There it is, very simple!

2022 February 8, “What do you prefer? Short time, good times, Long time, bad times”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(Southeast Asia, prostitution) A meeting with a sex worker that usually ends when ejaculation is reached.


skivvy

(military slang, Vietnam War) A prostitute.


business girl

A young woman employed in business or office work.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:business girl.

(idiomatic, euphemistic) A female prostitute.


gonk

A proprietary name of arbitrary formation.

(UK, crime, slang) A prostitute's client.


comfort woman

Calque from Japanese 慰(い)安(あん)婦(ふ) (ianfu).

She carefully watches the efforts of Koreans who are suing Japan to get reparations for the comfort women. It was only in 1993 that Japan formally recognized its involvement in the forced prostitution.

1995 September 10, Jane H. Lii, “The Memories of a Comfort Woman”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(idiomatic, historical, euphemistic) A woman forced, or supposedly recruited, into brothels by the Japanese occupation forces before or during World War II.

일본군 성노예(日本軍性奴隸) (ilbon'gun seongnoye, literally “sex slave to Japanese troops”)


comfort girl

(idiomatic, euphemistic) A female sex slave; prostitute.


whoring

whoring (countable and uncountable, plural whorings)

Scott... had told me at the Closerie des Lilas how he wrote what he thought were good stories, and which really were good stories for the Post, and then changed them for submission, knowing exactly how he must make the twists that made them into salable magazine stories. I had been shocked at this and I said I thought it was whoring. He said it was whoring but that he had to do it...

1964, Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 151:

Yet she increased her whorings, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours

1989, New Revised Standard Version, Book of Ezekiel, 23:19–20

Synonym of prostitution, having sex for money; (figurative) disgracing oneself for money; having promiscuous sex.


harlotry

harlotry (countable and uncountable, plural harlotries)

She fell in with bad companions, and became addicted to drink, going from bad to worse until drunkenness, robbery, and harlotry brought her to the lowest depths.

1890, William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out:

Harlotry, wine, and new wine take away the understanding.

1971, New American Standard Bible, Hosea 4:11

Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.

1982, New King James Version, Hosea 4:11


pan-pan

From Japanese パンパン (panpan), an ellipsis of パンパンガール (panpangāru). Compare Ilocano pampam (“prostitute”), Tagalog pampam (“prostitute”), Bikol Central pampam (“prostitute”), Cebuano pampam (“prostitute”), Waray-Waray pampam (“prostitute”), Maranao pampan (“prostitute”).

In his recent overview of occupied Japan, John Dower poignantly describes the "pan-pan girls" who offended conservatives with their willingness to trade sexual favors for the Americans' gifts and money.

2003, David Richard Leheny, The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure, →ISBN:

Their fiction does, however, reflect specificiteis of post-Surrender society; the women work as maids and pan-pan, American GIs are ever-present, and shortages and disruptions are commonplace.

2004, Douglas Slaymaker, The Body in Postwar Japanese Fiction, →ISBN, page 41:

...popular perceptions of the pan-pan has given way in Ōe's series to an androcentric censure that sees the native intellectual youth as the chief victim of occupation.

2007, The Journal of Japanese Studies - Volume 33, Issue 2, page 400:

The sight of the heavily made-up pan pan smoking on street corners beneath railway overpasses at stations like Yurakucho, or even worse, the sight of these women hanging from the arm of their swaggering GI partners, constituted a painful affront to male national pride.

2009, Stephen Mansfield, Tokyo: A Cultural and Literary History, page 210:

The pan-pan girls who associated with African American GIs ("Kuro-pan" or "Black pan-pan girls") were considered lower status than those who associated with Euro-American GIs ("Shiro-pan", or "White pan-pan girls").

2010, Maria Höhn, Seungsook Moon, Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present, →ISBN:

(historical) A Japanese prostitute who catered to American GIs in post-WWII occupied Japan.


rent boy

rent boys (plural)
rentboy (alternative)

From rent (“to lease, let out”) + boy, a diminutive term for man.

Francis Urquhart: Got anything on him?
Tim Stamper: There was a whiff of scandal about ten years ago.
Francis Urquhart: Rent boy. In a train. To Red Hill. Yes. Wanted to sell his story but we bought it and hushed him up. Be ungentlemanly to bring that up. A man's private life should be private.
Tim Stamper: On the other hand, getting sucked off in second class is hardly prime ministerial behaviour.
Francis Urquhart: Yes, you have a point there.

1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 4:

An Irishman came up to him, bought him a drink, asked him if he was a rent boy, and agreed to give £40 for coming back.

1992, Donald James West, Buz De Villiers, Male prostitution, page 93:

Just then, a rent boy with perfect white teeth and a babyface flashed me one of those unforgettable Thai smiles.

2007, John Patrick, Dangerous Boys, Rent Boys, page 12:

(chiefly British, informal) A male prostitute, typically young and gay.


bagnio

From Italian bagno, from Latin balneum (“bath”). Doublet of bain, balaneion, and banya.

an old woman who has charge of a bagnio

1883, Adele Marion Fielde, “婆 (phûa)”, in A Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of the Swatow Dialect, Arranged According to Syllables and Tones, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, page 458:

(obsolete) A building for bathing, sweating.

(obsolete) In Turkey, a prison for slaves.


sex worker

sex workers (plural)
SW (alternative abbreviation)
SWer (alternative abbreviation)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sex worker.wav

Like the scripted scenarios mouthed by sex workers on 1-900 porn lines, our sexual language has become stilted and rehearsed.

1993 October, Michael Bronski, “The Lost Language of Desire”, in Gay Community News, page 12:

Most official attempts to monitor the health of sex workers have been designed to protect clients and society

1995. Lesley Doyal, "What makes women sick: gender and the political economy of health", Page 226

Many were initiated into sex work through friends who were already sex workers, but others took the initiative themselves.

1999. Peter Aggleton, "Men who sell sex: international perspectives on male prostitution", Page 44

In an unusual move, Florida prosecutors charged not only the sex workers advertised on the Web site, but also the Web site owners and registered users of the site.

2010. Marshall Barron Clinard, Robert F. Meier, "Sociology of Deviant Behavior", Page 350

A person who supplies sex work (short-term sexual services) in exchange for compensation.

عامل بالجنس

person who supplies sexual services for money


callboy

callboys (plural)
call boy (alternative)
call-boy (alternative)

→ Cebuano: callboy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-callboy.wav


canhouse

The Roamer Inn was like a model of all the canhouses I ever saw around Chicago, the granddaddy of them all.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 22:


party girl

party girls (plural)
partygirl (alternative)


calling card

calling cards (plural)
calling-card (alternative)

A card advertising the services of a prostitute.


spinner

From Middle English spynnere; equivalent to spin + -er.

I can ascertain that even in the present era where T20 cricket has redefined spin bowling and spinners have started bowling doosras and teesras and fire the deliveries in, you can expect Bishan Singh Bedi to stick to his original definition, and insist that, 'A spinner is one who turns the ball...'

2021, Neha Bedi, Sachin Bajaj, The Sardar of Spin:

Caprimulgus europaeus
Caprimulgus europaeus#Translingual

A Eurasian nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus).


little brown fucking machine

little brown fucking machine (plural little brown fucking machines)

little brown fucking machines (plural)
LBFM (alternative initialism)

Mack soon learned that this new bit of colonialist lingo stood for "Little Brown Fucking Machine." It was more convenient to abbreviate […]

And we still have soldiers who call us "a little brown fucking machine fueled by rice.

1996, Mary John Mananzan, J Shannon Clarkson, Letty Russell, Women Resisting Violence: Spirituality for Life:

What about that little brown fucking machine? She's got a nice body, a nice attitude; she takes care of herself. I figured you'd like her.

A Little Brown Fucking Machine is not unsexed by prostituting, she is "just doing what comes naturally."

1999, Kamala Kempadoo, Sun, Sex, and Gold:

After Wes forced the split between Jeri and Captain America, he started dating her and dangling a possible dalliance with the Little Brown Fucking Machine […]

LBFM is Navy speak for Little Brown Fucking Machine. They are the bar girls sailors meet in all the ports in the Orient. The term is generic for bar girls […]

(US, navy, vulgar, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A Southeast Asian woman regarded as a sex object.