John (prostitution)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The slang terms "john" (North America) or "punter" (British Isles) are used among both prostitutes and law enforcement for persons who solicit prostitutes.

The term john may have originated from the customers' practice of giving their name as "John," a common name in English-speaking countries, in an effort to maintain anonymity. The term john is American and the earliest known citation is from 1911 in a book by D.G. Phillips, Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise. In it, the term is used in the sense of "sugar-daddy" as opposed to customer.

In the United States, some customers call themselves mongers, a contraction of whoremongers.^{[citation needed]} This is a word that has altered from its meaning of a pimp, bawd, or whoremaster who deals in prostitutes as a fishmonger deals in fish to include anyone keeping the company of prostitutes. The euphemistic term hobbyist is in circulation among clients who are active online.^{[citation needed]}