William Hogarth's 1731 engraving of A Harlot's Progress is about a young woman, Mary Hackabout, who arrives in London from the country. Presumably she has come to look for work as a servant, but a procuress praises her beauty and suggests a more profitable occupation: prostitution.

In modern, popular usage of the word, a harlot is a prostitute. In modern usage, the word refers particularly to female prostitutes. In the original meaning of the word, a harlot was a woman who engaged in sacred prostitution. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Whore redirects here. ... Religious prostitution, the vulgar epithet for hieros gamos, is the practice of having religiously motivated sexual relationships. ...

Etymology

Biblical references

Though the word harlot today is used synonymously with prostitute, that is not the original meaning of the word.

The word in fact appears in the Hebrew Bible in several places and refers to a woman who engages in sacred prostitution. Sacred prostitution was a part of a pagan fertility ritual in ancient times. The motivation for the sexual activity was primarily religious in nature. 11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum Hebrew Bible is a term that refers to the common portions of the Jewish canon and the Christian canons. ... Religious prostitution, the vulgar epithet for hieros gamos, is the practice of having religiously motivated sexual relationships. ...

Unfortunately, in modern English translations the major distinction between a harlot and a prostitute is lost and Christian translations of the Old Testament use the word prostitute where harlot should be used, which changes the significance of the description. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism...

In Genesis 38:24 (according to the Jewish Publication Society translation of the Hebrew) it is said (in part) (note the emphasis below are mine): For other uses, see Genesis (disambiguation). ... The Jewish Publication Society of America was founded in Philadelphia in 1888 to provide the children of Jewish immigrants to America with books about their heritage in the language of the New World. ... The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ...

... 'Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and moreover, behold, she is with child by harlotry.'

but in the New International Version of the Old Testament the passage is rendered: The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Christian Bible which is the most popular of the modern translations of the Bible made in the twentieth century. ...

... "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant."

But a true meaning of the word harlot can be understood from verse 21, which reads:

Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here.'

and translated in the New International Version as:

He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said.

In order words, a harlot in the Bible refers to a shrine prostitute. Religious prostitution, the vulgar epithet for hieros gamos, is the practice of having religiously motivated sexual relationships. ...

More recent usage

The biblical meaning of the word harlot was lost and the word resurfaced again around the beginning of the 13th century in a work written in English. At that time, the word harlot was used to refer to a man and meant "a man of no fixed occupation, vagabond, beggar," and soon afterwards used to mean "male lecher." Look up vagabond in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Beggars in Samarkand, 1905 Begging includes the various methods used by persons to obtain money, food, shelter, or other necessities from people they encounter during the course of their travels. ...

In the 14th century, it began to be used to refer to women. How this meaning developed from the male sense is not clear. For a time, the word could also refer to a juggler or jester of either sex, but by the close of the 17th century the word referred exclusive to women. Juggling can refer to all forms of artful or skillful object manipulation. ... For other uses of Jester, see Jester (disambiguation). ...

Notes and references

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden wrote a song entitled "Charlotte the Harlot" from the band's first album, entitled "Iron Maiden". Avenged Sevenfold also have a song called "Beast and the Harlot" from their album "City of Evil". Also, the polish black/death metal band Behemoth has got a song entitled "The Harlot ov the Saints", from their album "Zos Kia Cvltvs: Here and Beyond" Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... This article is about the band. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Avenged Sevenfold is an American metal/hard rock band. ... Beast and the Harlot is a single by the American hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold, taken from their 2005 album City of Evil. ... It has been suggested that Bahamut be merged into this article or section. ...

Graduate students at The Ohio State University have started a digital magazine and forum titled Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion [1].