"prostitude" = giggolo

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:51 PM +0000 3/28/10, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>Yeah but a gig(g)olo is not quite a male prostitute?
>

Hmmm...Not all male prostitutes are gigolos, but aren't all gigolos
male prostitutes?  (And "prostidudes" might single out the relevant
ones, like our Mr. Markus.)

LH

>
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Date:         Sun, 28 Mar 2010 11:38:31
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] "prostitude" = giggolo
>
>On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 10:16 AM, Amy West wrote:
>>
>>  Spotted this in a wire story in the Boston Globe on Saturday:
>>
>>
>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/03/27/first_legal_gigolo_leaves_nev_brothel/
>>
>>  Brothel owner Jim Davis said yesterday that the Shady Lady Ranch had
>>  parted ways with the "prostitude'' who worked under the name Markus.
>>
>>  Why the new for a new coinage? And is it just me, or do others think
>>  that this blend should be "prostidude"?
>
>Indeed. I've now posted about this on Language Log (with a hat tip to Amy):
>
>http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2212
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
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