Harlot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Hogarth's 1732 series A Harlot's Progress is about a young woman, Moll Hackabout, who arrives in London from the country. Presumably she has come to look for work as a servant, but a procuress praises her beauty and suggests a more profitable occupation: prostitution.
William Hogarth's 1732 series A Harlot's Progress is about a young woman, Moll Hackabout, who arrives in London from the country. Presumably she has come to look for work as a servant, but a procuress praises her beauty and suggests a more profitable occupation: prostitution.

In modern, popular usage of the word, a harlot is a prostitute, particularly a female one. In the original meaning of the word, a harlot was a woman who engaged in sacred prostitution.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

[edit] Biblical references

The first known appearance of the word is in the Hebrew Bible, referring to a woman who engages in sacred prostitution, a part of a pagan fertility ritual in ancient times. The motivation for the sexual activity was primarily religious in nature.

In modern English translations the major distinction between harlot and prostitute is lost, and this changes the significance of the description.[1] [2]

[edit] More recent usage

The word resurfaced again around the beginning of the 13th century in a work written in English. At that time, the word harlot was used to refer to a man and meant "a man of no fixed occupation, vagabond, beggar", and soon afterwards used to mean "male lecher".[3]

In the 14th century, it began to be used to refer to women. 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 the word referred exclusively to women.

[edit] Use of the word in popular culture

  • The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden wrote a song entitled "Charlotte the Harlot" from the band's first album, entitled Iron Maiden.
  • Avenged Sevenfold have a song called "Beast and the Harlot" from their album City of Evil.
  • The Polish black/death metal band Behemoth has a song entitled "The Harlot of the Saints", from their album Zos Kia Cvltvs: Here and Beyond.
  • Psyclon Nine have a song titled "Harlot" on their album INRI.
  • Helltown Harlots are a psychobilly band from Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Harlot is a hard rock band from Greensboro, North Carolina
  • War From A Harlots Mouth is a grindcore band from Berlin, Germany
  • Graduate students at Ohio State University have started a digital magazine and web forum titled Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion [1]. The name is derived from the traditional disparagement of "rhetoric" as "the harlot of the arts."

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Genesis 38:21. ScriptureText. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  2. ^ Genesis 38:24. ScriptureText. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  3. ^ ethymology. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
Look up harlot in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.