Sunday, May 6, 2012

Whore

Whore \hawr\ or \hohr\ or \hoor\ , noun;
1. A woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse, usually for money; prostitute; harlot; strumpet

Whore come from Old English hore ("prostitute, harlot"), which derives from Proto-Germanic *khoraz ("one who desires"). *Khoraz ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *qar-, which is the forebear for most Indo-European words for "lover," including Sanskrit kamah. Look familiar? Kamah means "love, desire" and is the basis for the name of the Hindu love god, Kama, and the first element in Kama Sutra.

Since Germanic languages seem to be the only ones that turned *qar- into a pejorative term, some theorize that it was a euphemism for a word that hasn't survived into modern languages.

Personally, I think that strumpet is a hilarious word. It's so similar to crumpets, but having 'tea and crumpets' is very, very different than having 'tea and strumpets'.

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