whore
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: hô
ipa: /hɔː/
enpr: hôr
ipa: /hɔɚ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
enpr: hōr
ipa: /ho(ː)ɚ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
note: non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /hoə/
note: non-rhotic, dough-door merger, African-American Vernacular
ipa: /hoʊ/
note: nonstandard but traditional, several locations
enpr: ho͝or
ipa: /hʊɚ/
note: nonstandard but traditional, several locations
ipa: /hʊə/
note: nonstandard but traditional, several locations
enpr: ho͞or
enpr: hōr
ipa: /huːr/
ipa: /hɔːr/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
text: (North American)
homophone: hoar
homophone: hoe (non-rhotic, dough–door merger)
Forms: form: whores
form: whoring
form: whored
form: whored
form: wh*re
form: wh@re
form: whoore
form: ho
form: hoe
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 a 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.
Senses: glosses: To prostitute oneself.
glosses: To engage the services of a prostitute.
glosses: To pimp; to pander.
examples: text: Did you see him on that chat show, whoring his new book?
glosses: To promote shamelessly.
glosses: To pursue false gods.
examples: text: As for those whose hearts go a whoring after the world, and who set their affections on the things of the earth, they cannot love his appearing
ref: 1856, Matthew Henry, An exposition of the Old and New Testament, volume 2, page 42:
text: Whoring after fame, rushing into print, "scoring a scoop,"— alas! some scientists are too human.
ref: 1967, Hawaiian Historical Society, The Hawaiian journal of history, volume 1:
text: "That Jeroboam. He whores after power." "And you, my son, lust more decorously?"
ref: 1973, Herbert Tarr, A time for loving:
text: Is there any distinction between a nation that whores after a golden calf and one that whores after a black Cadillac?
ref: 1976, Matthew Fox, Whee! We, wee, all the way home:
text: If he whores after the new thing, he will only get it wrong and wind up praising the latest charlatans, the floozies of the New.
ref: 1978, Wilfrid Sheed, The good word & other words:
text: For them, God is still in heaven, and we his sinful children are still whoring after the twin idols of modernity and materialism.
ref: 2010 December 28, Mordechai Beck, “Set apart”, in Christian Century, volume 127, number 26, page 22:
glosses: To pursue false goals.
examples: text: 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...).
topics: video-games
glosses: To overuse something.
Synonyms: sense: to prostitute oneself
word: sell one's body
word: turn tricks
word: prostitute oneself
sense: to pimp
word: pander
word: turn out
word: pimp out
sense: to promote shamelessly
word: tout
sense: to promote shamelessly
word: pimp
Derived terms: whore after
whore around
whore out
whore up