whore
UK /hɔː/ · US /hɔɚ/ noun, verb
Forms whores whoring whored wh*re wh@re whoore ho hoe
- noun Synonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment.
- noun A person who is sexually promiscuous; a slut.
- noun A person who is unscrupulous, especially one who compromises their principles for gain.
- noun A person who will violate behavioral standards to achieve something desired.
- noun A contemptible person.
- verb (intransitive) To prostitute oneself.
- verb (intransitive) To engage the services of a prostitute.
- verb (transitive) To pimp; to pander.
- verb (transitive) To promote shamelessly. “Did you see him on that chat show, whoring his new book?”
- verb (intransitive) To pursue false gods.
- verb (intransitive) To pursue false goals.
- verb (transitive, slang, video games, derogatory) To overuse something. “BTW, that guy whuz still an asshole - camping the BFG and whoring the quad - I usually leave BFG maps but stuck around on that one and suicided quite a bit (3 times I got to about -10 frags, then came back to 0...).”
Synonyms
prostitute sell one's body pander tout pimp turn tricks turn out cocotte harlot bawd tart cyprian fancy woman working girl sporting lady lady of pleasure woman of the street
Etymology
From Middle English hore, from Old English hōre, from Proto-Germanic *hōrǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ros (“loved”), from *keh₂- (“to wish; desire”). Cognate with Dutch hoer, German Hure, Old Norse hóra as well as Sanskrit चारु (cā́ru, “dear”), Latin cārus (“dear, expensive”), and Irish cara (“friend”).
The unetymological spelling with wh- superficially denotes a formerly standard pronunciation with an excrescent /w/ (such as in whole), but such a form is hardly found in either commentators on Early Modern English pronunciations or records of traditional dialects (which both explicitly mention its rarity or absence), therefore leaving the spelling somewhat inexplicable. However, this may be because such an excrescent /w/ was absorbed by a following /uː/ (as in words with etymological /w/ such as whom, two) after it became established in the spelling but before our earliest orthoepic records.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot. Wyclif.
- verb To have unlawful sexual intercourse; to practice lewdness.
- verb To worship false and impure gods.
- verb To corrupt by lewd intercourse; to make a whore of; to debauch.
Etymology [OE. hore, AS. h; akin to D. hoer, hoere, G. hure, OHG. huora, huorra, Icel. h, Dan. hore, Sw. hora, Goth. h an adulterer, AS. h adultery, OHG. huor, and probably to L. carus dear. Cf. Charity.]
Etymology [Cf. Icel. h. See Whore, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whore”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details