Harlot
The first recorded use of the word ‘harlot’ was in c1225 it’s
from the Ancrene Wisse (also known as the Ancrene Riwle or Guide
for Anchoresses) is an anonymous monastic rule (or
manual) for anchoressess, written in the early 13th century
It originally
meant someone who lived in isolation like a nomad but did not change location.
It was a particularly popular lifestyle choice in 13th century
England.
However afterward,
around the 13-1400’s it meant an itinerant jester, buffoon, or juggler;
one whom tells or does something to raise a laugh.
The word then evolved
again in the 1600’s to mean something like a vagabond, beggar, rogue, rascal,
villain, low fellow, knave or generally a person who didn’t fit society’s views
of right and proper. In later use sometimes a man of loose life, a fornicator;
also, often, a mere term of opprobrium or insult.
a1653 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers
103 A man a harlot, and a wife a
whoore.
1659
D. Pell Πελαγος 37 What should you do with such Harlots in
your Service? Which calls for holiness, and better principled men.
Throughout its history however beginning in the 1400’s and
continuing to this day a Harlot has referred always to woman that are
prostitutes but earlier in its history it also referred to men alongside women.
Now it has undergone substantial broadening and means someone who jests and jokes as
well as being sexually promiscuous.
