strumpet
English
WOTD – 19 August 2015
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): /ˈstɹʌm.pɪt/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Rhymes: -ʌmpɪt
Noun
strumpet (plural strumpets)
- A female prostitute
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], pages 88–89:
- Em[ilia]. Fie, fie vpon thee ſtrumpet. / Bian[ca]. I am no ſtrumpet, but of life as honeſt, / As you, that thus abuſe me. / Em[ilia]. As I: fough, fie vpon thee.
- A woman who is very sexually active.
- A female adulterer.
- A mistress.
- (derogatory) A trollop; a whore.
- 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of Iealousie, Fear, Sorrow, Suspition, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking Up, Oathes, Trials, Lawes, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed [by Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610:
- He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant 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
Derived terms
Translations
A prostitute
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Verb
strumpet (third-person singular simple present strumpets, present participle strumpeting, simple past and past participle strumpeted)
- (obsolete, transitive) To debauch.
- c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 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.
- (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.
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