prostitution

See also: Prostitution

English

Etymology

From Late Latin prostitutio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌprɒstɪˈt͡ʃuːʃn/, /prɒstɪˈtjuːʃn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pros‧ti‧tu‧tion

Noun

prostitution (usually uncountable, plural prostitutions)

1. Engaging in sexual activity with another person for pay.

   Her addiction brought her to the point that prostitution was the only means she had to survive.

   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter II, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 21:

     Sir Howard by his arts stole from them this their only treasure, and to conceal from them the baseness of his despicable seduction, removed to a distance the deluded couple,—loaded them with his favours,—the wages of their child's prostitution.

   • 2013 July 29, David Ingram (reporting for Reuters), Howard Goller, Bill Trott (editing for Reuters), “FBI arrests 150 in three days in sex-trafficking sweep”, in news.yahoo.com‎^[1], retrieved 2013-07-29:

     The FBI typically does not investigate adult prostitution, leaving it as a state and local matter, but in recent years it has made child prostitution a priority in a program the FBI calls Operation Cross Country. The program includes highway billboards asking people to call the FBI with tips.

2. (by extension) Engaging in sexual activity with another person in exchange for goods (not necessarily money) or services.
3. (by extension) Debasement for profit or impure motives.

   The television advertising job was a prostitution of the talents of one of the great writers of the century.

Usage notes

The legal definition of prostitution varies, with some jurisdictions defining it as any exchange of sex for any goods or services of real or perceived value, while others limit it to transactions involving actual monetary payment.

Synonyms

• harlotry
• oldest profession, world's oldest profession
• oldest occupation
• whoredom

Hypernyms

• sex work

Related terms

• prostitute
• child prostitution
• prostitute's pupil

Translations

having sex for profit

• Afrikaans: prostitusie
• Albanian: prostitucion (sq) m
• Arabic: بِغَاءٌ (biḡāʔun), دَعَارَة (ar) (daʕāra)
• Armenian: պոռնկություն (poṙnkutʻyun), մարմնավաճառություն (hy) (marmnavačaṙutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: fahişəlik
• Basque: prostituzio
• Belarusian: прастыту́цыя f (prastytúcyja)
• Bulgarian: проститу́ция (bg) f (prostitúcija)
• Catalan: prostitució (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 賣淫／卖淫 (zh) (màiyín), 賣春／卖春 (zh) (màichūn) (euphemism)

• Czech: prostituce (cs) f
• Danish: prostitution c
• Dutch: prostitutie (nl) f
• Esperanto: prostituo, prostituado
• Estonian: prostitutsioon
• Ewe: ahasiwɔwɔ
• Faroese: skøkjulevnaður m
• Finnish: prostituutio (fi)
• French: prostitution (fr) f
• Galician: prostitución (gl) f
• Georgian: პროსტიტუცია (ṗrosṭiṭucia), მეძაობა (meʒaoba), როსკიპობა (rosḳiṗoba)
• German: Prostitution (de) f
• Greek: πορνεία (el) f (porneía)

  Ancient: πορνεία f (porneía)

• Hebrew: זנות (he) f (znut)
• Hindi: वेश्यावृत्ति (hi) f (veśyāvŕtti)
• Hungarian: prostitúció (hu)
• Ingrian: nussutöö
• Italian: prostituzione (it) f
• Japanese: 淫売 (ja) (いんばい, inbai), 売春 (ja) (ばいしゅん, baishun), 買春 (ja) (ばいしゅん, baishun, かいしゅん, kaishun), 切り売り主義 (きりうりしゅぎ, kiriurishugi)
• Kalmyk: яңхллт (yañxllt)
• Korean: 성매매 (seongmaemae), 매춘 (ko) (maechun)
• Kyrgyz: жалаптык (ky) (jalaptık)
• Latin: prostitutio f
• Macedonian: проститу́ција f (prostitúcija), ку́рварлак m (kúrvarlak)
• Malayalam: വേശ്യാവൃത്തി (ml) (vēśyāvr̥tti)
• Maori: kairautanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: prostitusjon (no) m

  Nynorsk: prostitusjon m

• Occitan: prostitucion (oc) f
• Persian: روسپی‌گری (ruspi-gari), تن‌فروشی (tan-foruši)
• Piedmontese: prostitussion f
• Plautdietsch: Huararie f
• Polish: prostytucja (pl) f
• Portuguese: prostituição (pt) f
• Romanian: prostituție (ro) f
• Russian: проститу́ция (ru) f (prostitúcija)
• Scottish Gaelic: strìopachas m, siùrsachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: проститу́ција f

  Roman: prostitúcija (sh) f

• Slovak: prostitúcia f
• Slovene: prostitúcija f
• Spanish: prostitución (es) f
• Swahili: umalaya class 14, ukahaba (sw)
• Swedish: prostitution (sv) c
• Telugu: వ్యభిచారం (te) (vyabhicāraṁ)
• Thai: การค้าประเวณี (gaan-káa-bprà-wee-nii)
• Turkish: fahişelik (tr)
• Ukrainian: проститу́ція f (prostytúcija)
• Vietnamese: sự mại dâm (vi)

Danish

Noun

prostitution c (singular definite prostitutionen, not used in plural form)

1. prostitution

Declension

Declension of prostitution

common gender	Singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	prostitution	prostitutionen
genitive	prostitutions	prostitutionens

Further reading

• “prostitution” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

From Latin prōstitūtiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔs.ti.ty.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

prostitution f (plural prostitutions)

1. prostitution

Related terms

• prostituée
• prostituer

Further reading

• “prostitution”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Swedish

Noun

prostitution c

1. prostitution (selling sex)

   Synonym: sexarbete

2. (figuratively) prostitution

Declension

Declension of prostitution

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	prostitution	prostitutions
	definite	prostitutionen	prostitutionens
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

Related terms

• prostituerad

References

• prostitution in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• prostitution in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Svensk MeSH
• Fula Ordboken