cathouse (1882)

[George Thompson]

I had posted the following, back in March:

1850:   . . . he was afterwards seen snugly ensconced in a chamber of
a notorious cat-house. . . .
        Life in Boston and New England Police Gazette, May 18, 1850,
p. 3, col. 2

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006 2:36 pm
Subject: cathouse (1882)

> cathouse = 'brothel' (OED2/MWCD11 1931, HDAS 1893)
>
> From an 1882 article on San Francisco underworld slang in the St.
> Louis Globe-Democrat (reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle):
>
> 1882 _St. Louis Globe-Democrat_ 22 July 11/3 The word 'cat' is often
> used as an adjective, as a 'cat restaurant' or a 'cat house,' the
> latter meaning a house of ill-fame and the former a restaurant where
> loose women eat. "In the wider application of the term," the policeman
> went on, "the word 'cat' is a applied generally to women, though it is
> restricted among the more aesthetic criminals to loose women."
> [19th C. US Newspapers]
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org