whore

Behind this harsh little word may be a surprisingly warm Indo-European idea: desire, affection, even being loved. The proposed ancestor *ka- also produced Sanskrit kāma, the divine force of love, Latin cārus “dear,” and Irish cara “friend”—so the same ancient family can lead toward both “whore” and “cherish.” In English, Old English hore meant “prostitute” or “harlot,” while a general insult for an unchaste woman appears by about 1200, whether money was involved or not. The spelling changed to whore in the 1530s, although the added w has an oddly uncertain relationship to actual pronunciation. Shakespeare used the word and its derivatives 99 times, and the Authorized Version of the Bible helped preserve it in literary English. A useful memory hook is this: beneath the later insult lies an ancient word-family that once circled around wanting, loving, and being dear.