strumpet
/ˈstrʌmpɪt/noun
An archaic or insulting word for a prostitute
From Uncertain; possibly Middle Dutch, with a competing Late Latin proposal strumpet (A prostitute or sexually promiscuous woman).
Lineage
The story
Strumpet arrives from the Middle English period wearing an etymological disguise: nobody is quite sure who made it. One leading theory points to Middle Dutch strompen, “to stalk,” imagining the purposeful walk of a prostitute seeking customers; another links it to Late Latin stuprum, “violation,” or stuprare, “to have illicit sexual relations.” By the eighteenth century, the word could be shortened to strum, which meant both “to have carnal knowledge of a woman” and—rather wonderfully—to play a stringed instrument badly. That double life helps explain why modern jokes pair strumpet with trumpet, although the resemblance is accidental. Shakespearean insult, medieval sexual vocabulary, and a badly played harpsichord all meet in one word whose history is as murky as its reputation.
Modern usage
A derogatory term for a prostitute or sexually promiscuous woman
- Heard in
- insults · archaic or theatrical speech · sexual slang
- See
- Shakespearean-style insult: “Thou art a strumpet!”