Prostitution has always been talked about as the oldest profession in the world. Beyond the exaggeration of the phrase itself, the truth is that prostitution has existed practically since the world is world. Sex was already traded in Babylon, Greece, Egypt, Rome ... In the latter, without going any further, the carnal trade was so deeply rooted that there were more than sixty words destined to name the women who exercised it. . In other words, there were more than sixty ways to say prostitute.
Why so many? Because Latin, a very rich language, used specific words to designate specific forms of prostitution or special characteristics of the prostitute on duty. Thus, brothels were called those that were exhibited in front of a brothel, noctilucas who only worked at night, culiolas who practiced Greek and culibonias who could boast of having good glutes.
Castilian, as a language derived from Latin, is also very rich when it comes to naming women who practice prostitution . We can say prostitute in many different ways. In a more or less cultured way or in a more or less popular or slum, we can give a name to the woman who trades with her body in many different ways.
Whores, lumis and escort girls
The most common and popular word when referring to prostitutes is undoubtedly the word whore. There is always something derogatory about his job. That is why we use it more than once as an insult when accompanying it with the expression "son of ...". Something that, certainly, says very little about our respect as a society for those women who freely decide to engage in prostitution without causing harm to anyone.
Another word widely used to refer to prostitutes, especially in the Madrid region, is the word lumi. In this case, the term seems to derive from the caló or language of the gypsies. In this language, the word ' lumí ' is used to designate concubines or prostitutes.
Sometimes, to highlight the exclusive character or the exceptional beauty of one of these women who provide sexual services in exchange for money, we speak of lumis, prostitutes or luxury whores.
There are also those who to highlight the exclusivity of a sex worker resort to the concept of escort . Whoever does this must bear in mind that, strictly speaking, escorts are not exactly prostitutes, but professionals of pleasure and erotic accompaniment who provide a series of services that can go beyond the simple sexual practice. Such services may include, for example, accompaniment to events, dinners, premieres, etc.
Talking about a company girl or a company lady is also a way (in this case disguised or, at least, respectful) of calling sex workers. To refer to escort girls, the British term 'call girl' is also often used. The term callgirl could be translated by something like "call girl", that is to say: girl with whom you contact by phone to have a date (it is understood that sexual) with her.
Synonyms for prostitute
But the ways of naming prostitutes are not exhausted in the terms given so far. Those of us who speak the Spanish language are in luck. Some student of the same affirms that in the Spanish dictionary there are more than two hundred synonyms of the word prostitute. That is to say: we have more than 200 ways to name a prostitute.
For example: Camilo José Cela, who was the Nobel Prize winner for literature, wrote a book entitled 'Izas, rabizas y colipoterras'. The title of that book, which was also a book of photographs of everyday scenes of women who prostituted themselves in Barcelona's Chinatown, included those three ways of naming whores.
Without going into the thick idiom of the Spanish language, we are going to see below some of the most famous ways of saying prostitute in Spanish.
Whore, for example, would be one of those popular ways of calling a whore. During the Middle Ages, prostitutes who pointed out the houses where they practiced their trade in a very visual way began to be called that way: by hanging a bouquet on the door. Whoever passed by that door and saw that bouquet, already knew that either that house housed a tavern, or that a lumi worked there. Or both things. After all, prostitutes of the time were trying to attract customers in taverns.
Bitch and whore would also be two other quite common ways of saying whore. The first would derive from an Arabic term that would be translated as concubine. The second would be the feminine of so-and-so. This second word, also derived from Arabic, would serve to name "any person".
Courtesans, hetairas and prostitutes
Along with that of concubine, those of courtesan, bribery, messalina, hetaira or prostitute would be other terms that could be used to name prostitutes. All these names bring us resonances from other times.
In some of these cases, the words used to name the whores refer us to Ancient Rome. In others, to classical Greece. In some, as with the word courtesan, to the Renaissance and Baroque courts.
Seen from the distance that time gives, the courtesans would come to be something like luxury whores, prostitutes of a certain level who would move through the halls of the different courts and who would surround themselves with counts, dukes, marquises and other characters of blue blood.
The hetairas would also come to be something like luxury prostitutes or, rather, escorts from classical Greece. Educated and cultured, the hetairas did more than fuck for money. They wrote and recited poetry, played a musical instrument, sang ...
Saving cultural distances and their own nuances, geishas would also become a kind of escorts for the Japanese upper classes.
Other Spanish terms used more or less sporadically to refer to prostitutes are barragana, pelandusca, maintained, pingo or buscona. Each of these names have their own shades of meaning. The maintained one, for example, would be that prostitute who works exclusively for a single client. The latter, in return for his sexual services, would take care of satisfying the economic needs of the woman.
Brothels, whorehouses and whorehouses
Beyond all these ways of naming a prostitute, it must be specified that there has always been a basic differentiation in the great magma of women who practice prostitution: the one that mediates between independent whores and whores who provide their service in some premises especially, such as the typical ones from Barcelona or Madrid.
In the same way that there are many ways to name a lumi, there are also many ways to call that place where a woman, along with others, can practice prostitution. From the most common of whorehouses to the brothel, when mentioning that place we can use words such as whorehouse, hostess club, mancebía, lupanar, whorehouse, quilombo, house of lenocinio ...
In recent times, there are some places that, due to the quality of their facilities and the beauty and professionalism of the girls who practice their profession there, have become the most luxurious and exclusive face of the places in which to meet a pleasure professional. Those sites are the escort agencies. In it you can enjoy the most exclusive of the wide and varied world of prostitution.
