courtesan


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cour·te·san

 (kôr′tĭ-zən)
n.
A woman prostitute, especially one whose clients are members of a royal court or men of high social standing.
[French courtisane, from Old French, from Old Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano, courtier, from corte, court, from Latin cohors, cohort-; see gher- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

courtesan

(ˌkɔːtɪˈzæn) or

courtezan

n
(Historical Terms) (esp formerly) a prostitute, or the mistress of a man of rank
[C16: from Old French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana female courtier, from cortigiano courtier, from corte court]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cour•te•san

(ˈkɔr tə zən, ˈkoʊr-, ˈkɜr-)

n.
a kept woman or prostitute associating with noblemen or men of wealth.
[1540–50; < Middle French courtisane < Upper Italian form of Tuscan cortigiana literally, woman of the court, derivative of corte court; for suffix see partisan1]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.courtesan - a woman who cohabits with an important mancourtesan - a woman who cohabits with an important man
concubine, doxy, paramour
kept woman, mistress, fancy woman - an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
odalisque - a woman slave in a harem
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

courtesan

noun (History) mistress, prostitute, whore, call girl, working girl (facetious slang), kept woman, harlot, paramour, scarlet woman, hetaera, demimondaine, fille de joie (French) a courtesan who was kept by some of 16th-century Venice's most powerful men
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

courtesan

noun
A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for payment:
bawd, call girl, camp follower, harlot, prostitute, scarlet woman, streetwalker, strumpet, tart, whore.
Slang: hooker, moll.
Idioms: lady of easy virtue, lady of pleasure, lady of the night.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
kéjnőkurtizán
courtisane

courtesan

[ˌkɔːtɪˈzæn] N → cortesana f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

courtesan

[ˌkɔːrtɪˈzæn] n → courtisane f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

courtesan

n → Kurtisane f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

courtesan

[ˌkɔːtɪˈzæn] n → cortigiana
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
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References in classic literature ?
The crone was la Falourdel; the girl was a courtesan; the young man was his brother Jehan.
This fine pleasantry made the courtesan laugh, and Jehan left the room.
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"Fortune is a courtesan; favorable yesterday, she may turn her back tomorrow."
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Suzanne was one of his favorites, a clever, ambitious girl, made of the stuff of a Sophie Arnold, and handsome withal, as the handsomest courtesan invited by Titian to pose on black velvet for a model of Venus; although her face, fine about the eyes and forehead, degenerated, lower down, into commonness of outline.
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An Amritzar courtesan near the window sniffed behind her head drapery.
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The government-clerks being led to detest the administrations which lessened both their salaries and their importance, treated them as a courtesan treats an aged lover, and gave them mere work for money; a state of things which would have seemed as intolerable to the administration as to the clerks, had the two parties dared to feel each other's pulse, or had the higher salaries not succeeded in stifling the voices of the lower.
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For I suspect that many will not be satisfied with the simpler way of way They will be for adding sofas, and tables, and other furniture; also dainties, and perfumes, and incense, and courtesans, and cakes, all these not of one sort only, but in every variety; we must go beyond the necessaries of which I was at first speaking, such as houses, and clothes, and shoes: the arts of the painter and the embroiderer will have to be set in motion, and gold and ivory and all sorts of materials must be procured.
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He nudged Philip when at some revue a woman appeared with practically nothing on, and pointed out to him the most strapping of the courtesans who walked about the hall.
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They were Phryne, Cleopatra, Messalina, those three celebrated courtesans. Then among them glided like a pure ray, like a Christian angel in the midst of Olympus, one of those chaste figures, those calm shadows, those soft visions, which seemed to veil its virgin brow before these marble wantons.
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Set in the second half of the 19th century, it is a melodramatic story of Umrao Jan, who as a beautiful child of five is kidnapped and sold to a tawaif in Lucknow, where she trains and becomes, after a few complicated twists and turns in the plot, a renowned and much sought-after courtesan. Critics acclaimed it as the best narrative on the life and culture of Lucknow and praised Ruswa's mastery of Urdu prose, and it has been reprinted several times.
Sidelines: the courtesans of Lucknow
The courtesan paradoxically made public the monarch's private vices, incarnated domestically political threats to the kingdom, and problematized the affiliations of sex and gender with power and authority.
Alison Conway. The Protestant Whore: Courtesan Narrative and Religious Controversy in England, 1680-1750
One of the fascinating topics that the authors cover, one that is not usually found in the narrative of textbooks, is the lives of courtesans. The authors reveal that the life of a courtesan could have tangible benefits to the woman involved.
Catherine Clay, Chandrika Paul, and Christine Senecal. Envisioning Women in World History

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