Generalized Whore

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 18:49:00 -0700, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>At the touch of a button, one can Google up about 100,000 hits for "crack
>whore" ( a woman - later anyone - so addicted as to perform sex acts in
>return for crack cocaine).

Even though "crack whore" is just an extension of the traditional sense of
"whore", I can see how it might have influenced the formation of other "X
whore" compounds where substance X is the object of a desperate obsession.

I forgot another common relative of "attention/publicity/camera whore":
"fame-whore".  That term often appears in online discussions of reality TV
stars and celebutantes like Paris Hilton (there's also the ppl. n./a.
"fame-whoring").



--Ben Zimmer