Other forms: gigolos
A gigolo is a man kept by a woman in return for his company. A kept gigolo, live as a gigolo, the aging gigolo.
The word belongs to the 1920s and to the resorts of the Riviera, where dancing partners could be hired by the evening. It is faintly contemptuous, and the contempt is aimed at the man rather than the woman, which is unusual for a word of this kind.
1noungigoloA man kept by a woman in return for his company.
“Her family thought her young husband was just a gigolo after her money.”
gigolo is a person.
French gigolo, the masculine of gigolette, a dance-hall girl, from giguer, to dance or frolic.
French
gigolo — young lover kept by an older woman
English, today
gigolo
Built from
First attested in English in 1922. From French gigolo (“young lover kept by an older woman”), first attested in that sense in 1904 (attested since 1850 in the sense “Amant de cœur, compagnon d'une gigolette", and since 1894 in the sense “elegant young man whose means of livelihood are dubious”), a back-formation from gigolette (“promiscuous dancing girl, girl available for hire as a dancing partner”), attested since 1850, from giguer (“to dance”), from gigue (“fiddle; type of dance; jig”). More at jig.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA