different between strumpet vs courtesan

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st??m.p?t/
• Rhymes: -?mp?t

Noun

strumpet (plural strumpets)

1. A female prostitute
2. A woman who is very sexually active.
3. A female adulterer.
4. A mistress.
5. (derogatory) A trollop; a whore.
   • 1900, Mark Twain, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated

     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!

   • 1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:

     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.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:prostitute
• See Thesaurus:promiscuous woman
• See Thesaurus:sexual partner

Derived terms

• crumpet

Translations

Verb

strumpet (third-person singular simple present strumpets, present participle strumpeting, simple past and past participle strumpeted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To debauch.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, II. ii. 153:

     My blood is mingled with the crime of lust; / For if we two be one, and thou play false, / I do digest the poison of thy flesh, / Being strumpeted by thy contagion.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To dishonour with the reputation of being a strumpet; to belie; to slander.
   • 1632, Philip Massinger, The Maid of Honour

     With his untrue reports, strumpet your fame.

Anagrams

• Trumpets, trumpets

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK, non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /k??t??zæn/, /?k??t?zæn/, /?k??t?z?n/
• (UK, rhotic) IPA^(key): /k??t??zæn/, /?k??t?zæn/, /?k??t?z?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k??t?z?n/, /?k??t?zæn/, /?ko?t?z?n/, /?ko?t?zæn/

Noun

courtesan (plural courtesans)

1. (archaic) A woman of a royal or noble court.
2. (dated) The mistress of a royal or noble.
3. A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prostitute

   • 2014, Frances Wilson, The Courtesan's Revenge, Faber & Faber (?ISBN), page 10:

     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.

Translations

Further reading

• courtesan on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Anagrams

• acentrous, ancestour, auncestor, courantes, ctenosaur, nectarous, outrances