cathouse (1882)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

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

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