whoremaster/whore-master

[Wilson Gray]

I took aa look at what the OEDOL has for "pimp, 1864":

a man who takes a proportion of the earnings of a prostitute, usually
in return for arranging clients, providing protection, etc.

I assume that the above is still essentially the standard definition.
However, the BE meaning strikes me as being far closer to what
present-day pimps do than the 1864 definition.

A definition of "pimp" as understood on the streets of black Los
Angeles since at least 1964 might be:

a man who takes the entirety of the earnings of a prostitute, usually
in return for not beating the living shit out of her.

-Wilson

On Dec 14, 2007 10:20 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: whoremaster/whore-master
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Sarah Lang
> Subject: whoremaster/whore-master
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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