A picture that holds most of this word: something that should not be for sale is sold, and the seller is looked down on for selling it. In the oldest use the thing sold is sex. Later the same shape is stretched over a person's principles, their work, their name, even their dignity online. The contempt is not a side effect of the word; it is part of what the word is for.
From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces whore to Middle English hore and Old English hōre, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'loved, dear' — the same root as Latin cārus 'dear'. The old root does not soften the modern word; it only shows how far it has travelled. The wh- spelling is not original, and there is no /w/ sound in it.
維基詞典把 whore 追到中古英文 hore、古英文 hōre，再往上是一個意思為「被愛的、親愛的」的原始印歐語字根，跟拉丁文 cārus（親愛的）同源。這條線索不能拿來替今天的語氣說話，它只顯示這個字走了多遠。開頭的 wh- 不是原本就有的拼法，唸的時候沒有 w 的音。
Wiktionary, "whore"
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原始詞典資料12 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
whorenoun/hɔː/
- 1
vulgarderogatorySynonym of prostitute: a person (especially a woman) who offers sexual services for payment.
- The merciless Macdonald – worthy to be a rebel, for that the multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied, and fortune on his damned quarrel smiling showed like a rebel's whore.
- I come looking for a job But I get no offers Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
- 2
vulgarderogatoryA person who is sexually promiscuous; a slut.
- He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.
- So after he fucks the shit out of me, he tells me I'm lying about his whore not being Brad.
- 3
vulgarderogatoryA person who is unscrupulous, especially one who compromises their principles for gain.
- You're smart. They're all whores.
- Dude: Since when did you become a political whore? Phil: I prefer the term political slut, thank you very much!
- 4
vulgarderogatoryA person who will violate behavioral standards to achieve something desired.
- Vidal is at once more detached and more preoccupied with his own view, celebrating an aristocracy of sensibility constantly thwarted and ignored by those mere whores after fame, the statesmen and politicians.
- By that time, Tejeda had already been accused of beating his wife, abandoning his children, living in sin with another woman, being a whore for the insurance lobby, and accepting bribes.
- 5
vulgarderogatoryA contemptible person.
- "Begone," Clare shouted. She could not bring herself to kill in cold blood. "Begone, or I'll shoot." "Idiot whore," he shouted back. "You would not dare."
- I don't need that Lamont Cranston to tell me. Every Irishman knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. We've known since the time of that rotten ould whore, Elizabeth the Bloody First!
whoreverb/hɔː/
- 1
vulgarderogatoryTo prostitute oneself.
- 2
vulgarderogatoryTo engage the services of a prostitute.
- 3
vulgarderogatoryTo pimp; to pander.
- 4
vulgarderogatoryTo promote shamelessly.
- Did you see him on that chat show, whoring his new book?
- 5
vulgarderogatoryTo pursue false gods.
- 6
vulgarderogatoryTo pursue false goals.
- As for those whose hearts go a whoring after the world, and who set their affections on the things of the earth, they cannot love his appearing
- Whoring after fame, rushing into print, "scoring a scoop,"— alas! some scientists are too human.
- 7
vulgarderogatoryslangvideo-gamesTo overuse something.
- BTW, that guy whuz still an asshole - camping the BFG and whoring the quad - I usually leave BFG maps but stuck around on that one and suicided quite a bit (3 times I got to about -10 frags, then came back to 0...).
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。