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Fireships and Fizgigs

A list of 92 words by sionnach.

About

This list is dedicated to names for women of easy virtue (basically prostitutes and "other women"). I have resisted making such a list until now; the abundance of such terms, and the relative paucity of comparable words applied to men is an embarrassment. But I suppose it can be viewed as evidence of historical and societal attitudes toward women down the ages, further documentation of male privilege, if such documentation were needed.

Comments

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  • bilby commented on the list fireships-and-fizgigs

    Point taken. But this list could be a good place to spill one's juggled groceries, as it were.

    February 16, 2009

  • rolig commented on the list fireships-and-fizgigs

    You might be interested in the use of Paphian by Byron and the Russian romantic poet Yevgeny Baratynsky to refer to prostitutes (see my comments on the word). And I would expect the Biblical harlot to be on this list.

    February 16, 2009

  • madmouth commented on the list fireships-and-fizgigs

    I encountered girl of experience in a very ambiguous Powell passage.

    I can't get angry at this class of words, out of plain love of colourful insults. There are just as many (and more) terms of disparagement for men in English (esp. before the 19th century), only not in this domain. Domains are domains; you couldn't well call a woman shittard--cackard--squittard, could you? (on the other hand, do the shittards have it easier than the queans?)

    May 11, 2009

  • bilby commented on the list fireships-and-fizgigs

    lupanar

    May 24, 2010

  • bilby commented on the list fireships-and-fizgigs

    pitcher-bawd

    September 10, 2021