whore
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
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: 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: examples: text: The merciless Macdonald – worthy to be a rebel, for that the multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied, and fortune on his damned quarrel smiling showed like a rebel's whore.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
ref: 1969, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”, Bridge over Troubled Water, Columbia Records
glosses: Synonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment.
synonyms: word: prostitute
extra: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment
examples: text: He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.
ref: 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: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610:
text: So after he fucks the shit out of me, he tells me I'm lying about his whore not being Brad.
ref: 2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 250:
glosses: A person who is sexually promiscuous; a slut.
examples: text: Dude: Since when did you become a political whore?
Phil: I prefer the term political slut, thank you very much!
ref: 2004 February 12, Bayard Russell, nonemorecomic:
glosses: A person who is unscrupulous, especially one who compromises their principles for gain.
examples: text: Vidal is at once more detached and more preoccupied with his own view, celebrating an aristocracy of sensibility constantly thwarted and ignored by those mere whores after fame, the statesmen and politicians.
ref: 1982, Daniel Hoffman with Leo Braudy, Harvard guide to contemporary American writing:
text: By that time, Tejeda had already been accused of beating his wife, abandoning his children, living in sin with another woman, being a whore for the insurance lobby, and accepting bribes.
ref: 1990 June, Mother Jones Magazine, volume 15, number 4, page 9:
text: a shameless hack—such a whore for the money—that he wouldn't even lend his name to his creations.
ref: 1997, John Irving, A Son of the Circus:
text: I don't want to be a media whore," says Babydol. "I don't need to 'sell' my record — it will sell because it's good or won't if it's not
ref: 1999 October, Los Angeles Magazine, volume 44, number 10, page 186:
glosses: A person who will violate behavioral standards to achieve something desired.
examples: text: "Begone," Clare shouted. She could not bring herself to kill in cold blood. "Begone, or I'll shoot."
"Idiot whore," he shouted back. "You would not dare."
ref: 1999 August, Rod Garcia y Robertson, “Strongbow”, in Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 97, number 2, page 4:
text: I don't need that Lamont Cranston to tell me. Every Irishman knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. We've known since the time of that rotten ould whore, Elizabeth the Bloody First!
ref: 2000 Spring, Pete Hamill, “The Fenian Ram”, in World of Hibernia, volume 5, number 4, page 72:
text: Saxon curses rang in her ears. Dane, they yelled, Viking whore. We will have revenge on you.
ref: 2003, Helen Kirkman, A moment's madness:
glosses: A contemptible person.
Derived terms: achievement whore
as demure as a whore at a christening
attention whore
bar whore
bewhore
bitchwhore
bottle whore
camwhore
cockwhore
coke whore
crack whore
credit whore
cuntwhore
cute hoor
demure as a whore at a christening
dope whore
fame whore
Four Floors of Whores
graphics whore
hedge whore
he-whore
ho
Jack whore
karma whore
kinderwhore
link whore
loot whore
Madonna-whore complex
manwhore
media whore
nervous as a whore in church
postwhore
rock whore
slore
son of a whore
stat whore
sweat like a whore in church
whore bath
whoredom
whorefucker
whore-fucking
whorehound
whorehouse
whorelike
whoreling
whorely
whoreman
whoremaster
whoremonger
whore mouth
whorenalist
Whore of Babylon
whorephobia
whore's egg
whore's eyes
whoreship
whoreshit
whoresome
whoreson
whore's paint
whorey
whorish