There are wildly varying estimates available about the scale of the prostitution industry in the world today, although most of these are not obtained by any scientific method. There is, however, general agreement that prostitution is widespread, even...

Practice of engaging in sexual activity, usually with individuals other than a spouse or friend, in exchange for immediate payment in money or other valuables. Prostitutes may be of either sex and may engage in either heterosexual or homosexual...

. Prostitution was not an important social phenomenon in France until the urban revival of the high Middle Ages, when the use of the term meretrix publica allowed the clear distinction of the professional prostitute from the privately...

A woman who might be described in the third person as a prostitute is unlikely to be called ‘you prostitute’ in direct address. ‘You whore’, making use of the rather more old-fashioned term, would be the more likely expression....

To Shakespeare, who uses this word vocatively in, e.g. Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Othello, ‘strumpet’ meant a prostitute. It is doubtful if a modern woman would understand it in that sense. She would think it a very old-fashioned...

A whore in a fine dress is like a dirty house with a clean door. (Scottish) A young whore, an old saint. (English) Once a whore, always a whore. (English) Whoredom and grace dwelt never in one place. (Scottish) Whoredom and thieving are never long...

As brackish water does not become sweet, so a harlot does not change her ways. (Egyptian) The one who spends money on harlots sells his virtue for disease....

Prostitution is sexual activity in exchange for remuneration. The legal status of prostitution varies in different countries, from punishable by death to complete legality. The term is also used more loosely to indicate someone who engages in sexual...