"prostitude" = gigolo

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:04 PM -0400 3/28/10, ronbutters wrote:
>Not necessarily.
>
>(1) If the man is "financially supported" by the older woman, then
>he is not a prostitute, which is one who directly offers sexual
>services for pay, quid pro quo.
>(2) If the man is paid to "be her escort" without sexual services,
>then he is certainly not a prostitute.
>(3) Male prostitutes service clients of both sexes; GIGOLOS (or so
>the dictionary says; see NOAD below) service only female clients.

It was observation (3) I had in mind in the parenthetical in my
comment below--somehow the male-client-servicing variety of male
prostitutes don't strike me as being aptly described as
"prostidudes".  But it's true I didn't have observations (1) and (2)
into account, since I was assimilating the escort variety of gigolos
to the escort-with-happy-ending variety.  I certainly wasn't
reckoning on professional male dancing partners counting as gigolos.

LH

>
>All of these points agree with my intuitions as well as being
>supported by the dictionary definition. I have never heard the term
>GIGOLO applied to young men who are supported by sugar daddies,
>though I suppose someone might do it as a mild sort of metaphor,
>especially since no alternative comes to my mind: HUSTLER has more
>of the sense of 'prostitute'; ESCORT is often a euphemism for
>'prostitute'; YOUNGER LOVER seems somewhat dated (and does not
>necessarily convey the sense of financial dependance).
>
>
>gig*o*lo |ejig/flP|  n. (pl. -os) often derogatory a young
>man paid or financially supported by an older woman
>to be her escort or lover.
>   a professional male dancing partner or escort.
>-ORIGIN 1920s (in the sense 'dancing partner'): from
>French, formed as the masculine of gigole 'dance hall
>woman,' from colloquial gigue 'leg.'
>gig*ot |ejig/t|  n. a leg of mutton or
>
>
>On Mar 28, 2010, at 12:04:20 PM, "Laurence Horn"
><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
>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
>
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