harlot

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“
For a harlot is a deep well, And an adultress is a narrow pit.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A woman prostitute.
  2. Word History
    The word harlot nowadays refers to a particular kind of woman, but interestingly it used to refer to a particular kind of man. The word is first recorded in English in a work written around the beginning of the 13th century, meaning "a man of no fixed occupation, vagabond, beggar,” and soon afterwards meant "male lecher.” Already in the 14th century it appears as a deprecatory word for a woman, though exactly how this meaning developed from the male sense is not clear. For a time the word could also refer to a juggler or jester of either sex, but by the close of the 17th century its usage referring to males had disappeared.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Harlot has been looked up 424 times, favorited 4 times, listed 57 times, and commented on 6 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

adulterer ·  minx ·  strumpet ·  whore ·  debauchee ·  drunkard ·  gamester ·  adventuress ·  slut ·  impostor ·  libertine ·  prostitute
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, vagabond, rogue, lecher, harlot, from Old French arlot, herlot, vagabond.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English harlot, a fellow, varlet, knave, buffoon, vagabond, from Old French *harlot, arlot, herlot, a vagabond, thief, = Provencal arlot, a vagabond, = Italian arlotto, a glutton, sloven (formerly applied also to a hedge-priest), feminine arlotta, harlot, in modern English sense; Middle Latin arlotus, a glutton. Cf. Welsh herlod, a stripling, lad, Cornish harlot, a rogue (from the English). The apparently orig. sense, ‘a fellow,’ gives some color to Skeat's proposed derivation, from Old High German karl (= Anglo-Saxon ceorl, English churl = Icelandic karl, English carl, q. v.) + F. diminutive -ot; but this is very unlikely; Old High German initial k does not change to h or fall off in Old French words.
  2. from harlot, n.
 

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/ˈhɑrlət/
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