Other forms: prostitutes
A prostitute is somebody who sells sexual services. Work as a prostitute, arrested the prostitute, laws about prostitutes.
The word is now often avoided in favour of sex worker, which those doing the work generally prefer and which most public health and policy writing uses. The law varies enormously between countries, and what is criminalised — the selling, the buying, or the organising — differs in each. Note that the Latin means set up in public.
1nounprostituteSomebody who sells sexual services.
“The film tells the story of a young woman forced to work as a prostitute.”
prostitute is a person selling services.
Latin prostituere is pro plus statuere, to set up — to set up in public. Statue and institute come from the same setting up.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōstitūtus
English, today
prostitute
From Latin prōstitūtus. From Latin prōstitūtus, past participle of prōstituō, from prō̆ + statuō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA