harlot: [13] The use of harlot for ‘prostitute’ is a comparatively recent development in the word’s history. It originally meant ‘tramp, beggar’, and did not come to mean ‘prostitute’ until the 15th century. It was borrowed from Old French harlot or herlot ‘vagabond’, a word of unknown ancestry with relatives in Italian (arlotto) and Proven?al (arlot).
harlot (n.)
c. 1200 (late 12c. in surnames), "vagabond, man of no fixed occupation, idle rogue," from Old French herlot, arlot "vagabond, tramp, vagrant; rascal, scoundrel," with cognates in Old Proven?al (arlot), Old Spanish (arlote), and Italian (arlotto), but of unknown origin. Usually male in Middle English and Old French. Used in positive as well as pejorative senses by Chaucer; applied in Middle English to jesters, buffoons, jugglers, later to actors. Secondary sense of "prostitute, unchaste woman" probably had developed by 14c., certainly by early 15c., but this was reinforced by its use euphemistically for "strumpet, whore" in 16c. English translations of the Bible. The word may be Germanic, with an original sense of "camp follower," if the first element is hari "army," as some suspect.
雙語例句
1. Why should I approve of his cavorting with a harlot?
另外我為什么要贊成國王娶一個妓女為妻?
來自電影對白
2. But they said,'should he treat our sister as a harlot? "
創(chuàng)34:31他們說 、 他豈可待我們的妹子如同妓女麼.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
3. The cold smile of a deceased harlot.
一個死妓女冰冷的微笑.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
4. Destructive and greedy as a harlot.
它像妓女一樣有害而貪婪.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
5. When Judah saw her , he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face.