Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woman prostitute, especially one whose clients are members of a royal court or men of high social standing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See courtezan, courtezanship.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic A woman of a royal or noble court.
- n. dated The mistress of a royal or noble.
- n. A prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A woman who prostitutes herself for hire; a prostitute; a harlot.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a woman who cohabits with an important man
Etymologies
- From French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano ‘courtier’, from corte ‘court’. (Wiktionary)
- French courtisane, from Old French, from Old Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano, courtier, from corte, court, from Latin cohors, cohort-; see gher-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term courtesan has the added advantage of being politely derogatory enough to make it into mainstream parlance.”
“The high point for Defoe's high-class courtesan is her "little ball" in her swanky London apartments.”
“It occurred to me recently that the word courtesan would a better term to describe the fawning sycophants who make up the washington establishment these days, media shills, congress, and Demo collaborators.”
“I think when you say the word courtesan, or prostitute, you don't think of things like integrity, and somebody who's highly moral, and all of those things.”
“And therefore knowledge that tendeth but to satisfaction is but as a courtesan, which is for pleasure and not for fruit or generation.”
“A courtesan is a mistress of a man of wealth or nobility.”
Simon & Schuster: Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage
“The greatest danger in becoming a courtesan was the risk that her choice might damage Geoffrey, since to leave him behind was entirely out of the question.”
“And she is all the more real because it is France, impure, the country of light loves and immodest passions, where all that is sensual comes to the surface, and the courtesan is the queen of ignoble fancy, that has brought forth this most perfect embodiment of purity among the nations.”
“Therefore Phryne, whom men, groping in darkness and the dull ways of earth, dubbed courtesan, shone in a Court of Law before the assembled nobles of Athens, naked and undismayed in the blaze of her fairness.”
Earthwork out of Tuscany Being Impressions and Translations of Maurice Hewlett
“The first act opens in the house of Epicharis, a courtesan, which is a rendezvous for the dissolute Roman nobles.”
The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘courtesan’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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The Decemberists for polite everyday ...
opal, dolor, lithe, infanta, vagabond, courtesan, vestry, skein, dram, magenta, camisole, charlemagne and 8 more...
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Courtly Love
Variations on the word court.
courtly love, Courtney Love, court, tennis court, the ball is in yo..., courtesy, courtside, courtship, Supreme Court, courtier, court-bubble, courtesy book and 16 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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Out of Book Words
commiserate, equanimity, dulcet, cursory, diffident, profligate, egregious, precocious, dissemble, aggregate, efficacy, ingenuous and 100 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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Logophile, The Back Page (AKA: just c...
node, nexus, locus, toroidal, ivory, kestrel, lyre, muscat, caldera, tapestry, codex, paragon and 103 more...
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Man likes these words
danube, schadenfreude, macabre, wanderlust, epiphany, azure, zeitgeist, cerulean, ennui, rhine, abyss, mulch and 130 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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Who Are You?
No one ever says, "I want to be a somnambulist when I grow up." But don't let that get in the way of organizing your Wordie lists.
chevalier, somnambulist, sommelier, troubadour, vicar, majordomo, caliph, polyglot, polymath, apprentice, nuyorican, privateer and 107 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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sexual feelings
words describing the sexual parts of life
snog, shag, copulate, intercourse, paraphilia, carnal, fetish, fornicate, abstinence, foreplay, coitus, chastity and 119 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for courtesan.
dailyword Rodrigio's wife was this. Jun 19, 2012
Prolagus Cortigiano (man): a courtier
Cortigiana (woman): a trollop. Jun 13, 2008