different between prostitution vs meretricious

English

Etymology

From Late Latin prostitutio.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: pros?ti?tu?tion

Noun

prostitution (usually uncountable, plural prostitutions)

1. Engaging in sexual activity with another person for pay.

   • The FBI typically does not investigate adult prostitution, leaving it as a state and local matter, but in recent years it has made child prostitution a priority in a program the FBI calls Operation Cross Country. The program includes highway billboards asking people to call the FBI with tips.

   Her addiction brought her to the point that prostitution was the only means she had to survive.

2. (by extension) Debasement for profit or impure motives.

   The television advertising job was a prostitution of the talents of one of the great writers of the century.

Synonyms

• harlotry
• oldest profession, world's oldest profession
• oldest occupation
• whoredom

Related terms

• prostitute
• child prostitution

Translations

French

Etymology

From Latin pr?stit?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??s.ti.ty.sj??/

Noun

prostitution f (plural prostitutions)

1. prostitution

Related terms

• prostituée
• prostituer

Further reading

• “prostitution” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Latin meretr?cius, from meretr?x (“harlot, prostitute”), from mere? (“earn, deserve, merit”) (English merit) + -tr?x (“(female agent)”) (English -trix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m????t????s/, /?m????t????s/
• Rhymes: -???s

Adjective

meretricious (comparative more meretricious, superlative most meretricious)

1. Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.
   • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador 2007, p. 164:

     When I lifted my eyes from the page, there was none of the meretricious argument London always offers that the sole real purpose in life is to hustle for a buck.

2. (law) Involving unlawful sexual connection or lack of consent by at least one party (said of a romantic relationship).
3. (obsolete) Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.

Synonyms

• (tastelessly showy): brassy, cheap, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy

Related terms

• merit (see also: merit: related terms)

Translations