whoremaster/whore-master

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED:

   = whoremonger, 1508.

  = procurer or pimp, 1864.


  I've heard the term used in conversation probably less than a dozen times over the years, almost always from white, blue-collar speakers. Virtually every time the intended sense was clearly that of 1508.  The single exception I can recall was one of my high-school English teachers, who once used it in the 1864 sense.

  Etymologically, "whoremonger" should also = "pimp," but OED finds no exx.

  JL

Sarah Lang <slang at UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Sarah Lang
Subject: whoremaster/whore-master
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In John Turturro's (excellent) film _Romance & Cigarettes_ (2005,
only now being distributed), the word whoremaster (whore-master) is
used repeatedly to describe & name the central father figure (as well
as "his father and his father before him").

The interesting part is that Turturro uses it not to describe a pimp,
etc., but simply a husband who cheats on his wife. (The woman he
cheats with appears to fall in love with him and he "almost" loves her.)

Other instances of this use?

Thanks,
S.


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