Definition
In legal usage, a woman who engages in unlawful sexual commerce with men, particularly for hire. Historical legal dictionaries treat the term as substantially synonymous with prostitute, harlot, and concubine, though the precise boundaries of each term shifted across jurisdictions and time periods. The primary legal significance of the term arises not from its use as a statutory category — where "prostitute" became the dominant legislative term — but from its appearance in defamation and slander doctrine, where calling a woman a whore constituted actionable per se defamation under the common law.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A verb cluster centered on sexual commerce — to prostitute oneself, to engage a prostitute, to pimp or pander. Also extended figuratively: to promote shamelessly, to pursue false goals or gods, to overuse something.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot.
The legal meaning tracks closely with the historical common meaning, but the legal stakes diverge sharply. In law, the term's significance is primarily evidentiary and tortious: whether the word was spoken or written, who heard or read it, and whether the imputation damaged reputation. The modern figurative uses — promoting shamelessly, overusing something — have no legal valence and should not be imported into historical legal texts where the word appears.
Common Confusion
WHORE vs. PROSTITUTE vs. HARLOT vs. CONCUBINE: Historical legal dictionaries use these terms interchangeably and sometimes in cascading definition chains. The distinctions that existed were social and moral rather than strictly legal. "Prostitute" came to dominate statutory language in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, making it the operative term in criminal codes. "Harlot" is primarily archaic. "Concubine" carries a distinct legal meaning in some historical contexts — a woman cohabiting with a man without formal marriage — and should not be treated as synonymous with whore in contexts involving inheritance, legitimacy, or domestic relations law. Anderson's Dictionary of Law directs the researcher to PROSTITUTE and SLANDER rather than providing an independent definition, reflecting the term's functional role as a cross-reference node rather than a freestanding legal category.
Why It Matters in Research
The term appears in Law Mind corpus sources in two distinct legal contexts, and conflating them will misdirect research.
First, slander per se. At common law, imputing unchastity to a woman — calling her a whore — was actionable without proof of special damages in many American jurisdictions. This is the primary reason the term generates legal case law. Sheehey v. Cokley, 43 Iowa 183 (1876), cited by Black's second edition, is a slander case, not a prostitution prosecution. Researchers consulting historical case law under this term should expect a substantial body of defamation material alongside any criminal law material.
Second, criminal and regulatory law. Statutes targeting prostitution, vagrancy, and disorderly conduct used "prostitute" as the operative term with increasing consistency through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. "Whore" appears in older indictments, moral reform statutes, and ecclesiastical law contexts. When reading pre-1850 criminal pleadings or indictments, the term may appear as a charge-specific descriptor. In later sources, its presence in a legal document is more likely to be the substance of a slander claim than a statutory element.
Researchers should also note that historical slander law treated imputation of unchastity differently by gender. Calling a man a whoremonger had distinct treatment from calling a woman a whore. The gendered asymmetry in this doctrine is a recurring analytical issue in historical defamation research.
The Wiktionary entry's modern figurative senses are irrelevant to legal corpus research. Do not import them when interpreting historical legal texts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's first and second editions give nearly identical definitions: a woman who practices unlawful commerce with men, particularly for hire; a harlot; a concubine; a prostitute. The second edition anchors the definition to Sheehey v. Cokley, confirming that the legal definition emerged from slander litigation rather than criminal statute. Anderson's Dictionary of Law declines to define the term independently and redirects to PROSTITUTE and SLANDER — a significant editorial choice indicating that by the time of Anderson's compilation, the term had ceased to function as an independent legal category and survived primarily as a term whose utterance triggered legal consequences.
None of the historical dictionaries address the term's use in criminal indictments directly, nor do they discuss the ecclesiastical law background, where sexual offenses were historically prosecuted in church courts before being absorbed into secular jurisdiction. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century materials may need to consult ecclesiastical law sources not represented in the standard legal dictionary shelf.
Webster's 1913 tracks closely with the legal definitions, confirming that the legal and common meanings were largely aligned during the period when the legal cases were generated. The modern figurative drift documented by Wiktionary postdates the relevant legal materials.
Jurisdictional Note
Slander per se rules for imputation of unchastity varied by state. Some jurisdictions required proof of special damages even for this category of imputation; others treated it as per se actionable. Statutory terms in criminal prostitution law are entirely jurisdiction-specific and evolved independently across states and territories.