From male vagabond to 'loose woman': the odd history of harlot, strumpet and hussy

Where does 'harlot' come from?

'Harlot' comes from Old French herlot or arlot, a word for a vagabond, vagrant or rascal, and in English it first meant a man. Etymonline records it from about 1200, and from the late twelfth century in surnames, in the sense of a vagabond or a man of no fixed occupation, a rogue or tramp ^[1]. The ultimate origin is unknown, although cognates appear in Old Provençal, Old Spanish and Italian ^[1].

For centuries the word was applied to men more often than to women. In Middle English and Old French it was usually a masculine word, and Chaucer used it both approvingly and as an insult ^[1]. It was applied to jesters, buffoons and jugglers, and later to actors ^[1]. A reader meeting "harlot" in a fourteenth-century text cannot assume that a woman is meant, or even that the word is hostile.

The shift to the modern sense was gradual. Etymonline says that the meaning "prostitute" or "unchaste woman" probably developed by the fourteenth century and was certainly established by the early fifteenth ^[1]. The same entry notes a speculative Germanic origin, with an original sense of "camp follower" if the first element is hari, "army", although that is only a suspicion and not a confirmed derivation ^[1]. The route from "male rascal" to "female prostitute" is typical of words that move down in status.

The sixteenth century fixed the sexual meaning. Etymonline notes that English Bible translations used "harlot" as a euphemism for "strumpet" or "whore", which reinforced the prostitute sense ^[1]. The King James Version of 1611 is the best-known example. Its Joshua 2:1 says the two spies "came into an harlot's house, named Rahab" ^[8], and Luke 15:30 has the elder brother complain that the prodigal "devoured thy living with harlots" ^[9]. The Bible and the history of its vocabulary are discussed in the article on the King James Bible and fornication.

Four words compared

Word	First recorded	Original meaning	Later meaning
harlot	c. 1200	A vagabond, rogue or man of no fixed occupation; usually applied to men [1]	Prostitute or unchaste woman, probably by the 14th century and certainly by the early 15th [1]
strumpet	Mid-14th century	Harlot, prostitute, concubine; origin uncertain [2]	Shortened to 'strum' in the 18th and early 19th centuries [2]
hussy	1520s	Mistress of a household, a shortening of 'housewife' [3]	A woman of improper behaviour by 1650; only the derogatory sense by the mid-18th century [3]
rake	1650s	A debauchee, shortened from 'rakehell' (1550s) [4][5]	Also used of women by 1712 [4]

What is the origin of 'strumpet'?

The origin of 'strumpet' is uncertain, and Etymonline describes it as "a word of uncertain origin", recorded from the mid-fourteenth century with the meaning "harlot, prostitute, concubine" or a bold, lascivious woman ^[2]. It is one of those words whose date is known but whose parentage is not. The earliest records show it already established as an insult for a sexually active woman.

Two theories compete. The first points to Latin: strumpet may be linked to Latin stuprata ("have illicit sexual relations with"), to Late Latin strupum ("dishonour, violation") and to Old French stuprer ("to violate") ^[2]. The second points to Germanic: it may come from Middle Dutch strompe, a stocking, or strompen, "to stride, to stalk", as of a prostitute seeking customers ^[2]. Neither has been proved. Etymonline's entry does not connect it with "trumpet", which it resembles only in sound.

The word had a long life and several relatives. A form "streppett" appears in Gregory's Chronicle around 1450 ^[2], and "strumpetry" and "strumpethood" were coined later. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the word was often shortened to "strum", which Captain Francis Grose's slang dictionary of 1785 defined as a sexual act with a woman, and also as playing badly on a stringed instrument ^[2]. The comic double sense is a reminder that slang was often written by men for men.

Etymonline links the entry to a third word, "whore", dated in that spelling to the 1530s, from Middle English hore and Old English hore. It was used as a general insult from about 1200 and for male prostitutes from the 1630s ^[2]. The insult vocabulary for sexual conduct was therefore never confined to one sex, even though it leaned heavily towards women, as the next sections show.

How did 'hussy' grow out of 'housewife'?

'Hussy' began as a shortened form of 'housewife', meaning the mistress of a household. Etymonline records it from the 1520s in the sense "mistress of a household, housewife", a contraction of Middle English husewif ^[3]. The longer word is older: it appears in the early thirteenth century as husewif, from huse ("house") and wif ("woman"), and was originally pronounced "huzzif" ^[7].

The two words then diverged. By 1650 "hussy" was being used of a woman or girl of brazen or improper behaviour, often in the phrase "pert hussy" ^[3]. By the middle of the eighteenth century only the derogatory sense remained ^[3]. The full spelling "housewife" began to appear around 1500, partly to separate it from "hussy" ^[7].

The sixteenth century still felt the two words to be one. Etymonline says the distinction was made to set apart the respectable matron ^[7], and notes that by the mid-eighteenth century Samuel Johnson recorded "housewife" as the word used in a good sense, while "huswife" or "hussy" was used in a bad one ^[3]. Here a single word became a moral test: the same woman could be praised as a housewife or scorned as a hussy, depending on who was speaking.

The change fits a pattern linguists call pejoration, in which words for women drift downwards in status. The word now survives in British English as a mild and somewhat old-fashioned insult for a woman thought to be brazen or flirtatious. It is much more likely to be heard in a period drama than in a modern conversation. The language of sex outside marriage has other terms of the same family, discussed in the article on the words for children born outside wedlock.

What were the male equivalents, such as 'rake'?

The main male equivalents were 'rake', 'rakehell' and 'libertine', which followed a similar path from general words to sexual ones. Etymonline dates 'rakehell' to the 1550s, with the adjective in the 1540s, in the sense "wicked, dissolute wretch; thorough rascal" ^[5]. It is probably an alteration of Middle English rakel, "hasty, rash, headstrong", and its spelling was influenced by 'Hell' and by the garden tool ^[5]. The shortened noun 'rake', meaning a debauchee, is recorded from the 1650s ^[4].

'Libertine' has a more learned history. Etymonline records it from the late fourteenth century as a word for a freed slave, from Latin libertinus; in the 1560s it meant a freethinker, borrowed from French libertin; and from the 1590s it meant a dissolute or licentious person ^[6]. The adjective meaning "free or unrestrained" appears in the 1570s, with the negative sense "licentious" by about 1600 ^[6]. A libertine was first a person who had been set free, then one who was free in thought, and finally one free of moral restraint.

The most famous English use of the male type is probably William Hogarth's series of engravings, A Rake's Progress, published in 1735 ^[4]. It follows a young man who squanders his inheritance on fashionable vices and ends in a madhouse. The moral is clear, but the subject is a man whose own conduct brings him down, not a woman branded by the community.

Words of this kind did spread across the sexes. Etymonline notes that by 1712 'rake' was also used of women with similar character ^[4]. The reverse also happened, with "whore" applied to male prostitutes from the 1630s ^[2]. The statement that English has many insults for women and few for men is a familiar one, but this page has not counted terms and cannot confirm a ratio. What the dated entries do show is that the male terms also began as general words, for a wretch, a freed slave or a freethinker, and acquired their sexual senses later.

What do these words reveal about double standards?

They suggest, with caveats, that English moral vocabulary has often judged women's sexual conduct more harshly than men's, and the law of the time shows a similar unevenness. The change in "hussy", from respected housewife to a woman of improper behaviour, shows how a status word can become an accusation, while "rake" ended up as a figure in comedy and satire, though it also began as a word for a wretch ^[3][5].

The law offers a parallel. The Act of 10 May 1650, which punished fornication in England with three months in gaol for both the man and the consenting woman, treated adultery by a married woman as a capital felony; the man was excused if he did not know she was married ^[10]. Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, a husband could divorce his wife for adultery alone, but a wife had to prove adultery together with another offence such as cruelty or desertion, a difference that lasted until the Act of 1923 ^[11]. The legal side is covered in the article on adultery and divorce law in England.

It would be wrong to read the vocabulary as a simple mirror of the law. Some of these words, such as "harlot", began as masculine insults, and "libertine" and "rakehell" were sharp terms of censure for men. The pattern is of unevenness, not of a clean division.

The best way to use this history is as a record of how people spoke, not as a guide to how they should. These words are all still in dictionaries, and most are now archaic. They are useful to a modern reader chiefly for what they show about the attitudes of the periods in which they were coined. The same attitudes lie behind the older vocabulary of fornication itself, described in the article on the meaning and origin of fornication.

Frequently asked questions

Did 'harlot' always refer to women?

No. 'Harlot' first meant a male vagabond or rogue, recorded from about 1200, and in Middle English it was usually applied to men ^[1]. The sense of a prostitute or unchaste woman probably developed by the fourteenth century and was certainly established by the early fifteenth ^[1].

Is 'hussy' still offensive?

It is mild but still insulting. The word means a woman of improper or brazen behaviour, and Etymonline notes that only this derogatory sense remained by the mid-eighteenth century ^[3]. Today it is usually old-fashioned or jocular, but said seriously to someone it can still give offence.

Why does the King James Bible use 'harlot'?

Because sixteenth-century English translators used it as a euphemism for 'strumpet' or 'whore', which reinforced its sexual sense ^[1]. The 1611 King James Version has 'an harlot's house, named Rahab' in Joshua 2:1 and 'devoured thy living with harlots' in Luke 15:30 ^[8][9]. The word had by then lost its older male meaning.

What does 'rake' mean in A Rake's Progress?

It means a dissolute man who wastes his money and health on pleasure. Etymonline dates this sense of 'rake', a shortening of 'rakehell', to the 1650s, and records that Hogarth's engravings A Rake's Progress appeared in 1735 ^[4]. The word was mainly applied to men, though it was used of women by 1712 ^[4].

Is 'strumpet' related to 'trumpet'?

Etymonline's entry gives no such connection. It calls the origin of 'strumpet' uncertain, and suggests either a Latin link to words for illicit sex and violation or a Germanic link to Middle Dutch words for a stocking or for striding ^[2]. The resemblance to 'trumpet' appears to be one of sound only.

Is 'libertine' a male insult?

Not necessarily. 'Libertine' meant a freed slave in the late fourteenth century, a freethinker in the 1560s and a dissolute or licentious person from the 1590s ^[6]. Etymonline's entry does not limit it to men, although the male libertine is the figure most readers will recognise.