Terminology of the past and present

[chudmuskett]

Hi all, I was looking through old papers online for traces of similar cases pre 1888 and using key words like 'Prostitute' 'Knife' 'Cut' etc then it occurred to me that in my life time the name for a prostitute has changed in the press at least once if not twice (Prostitute, Working Woman and then just Woman). Also I remembered (just for an example) my nan used to call every cup a beaker. If I had to do an internet search on that I would need the name 'beaker' instead of cup in order to get an effective search. So, if you could throw a couple of relevant key words my way that you think the press might use it would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Phil H]

For prostitute - "unfortunate" was often used, I believe - but one might try ladies of the street/night; street-walkers.

In my experience Victorian writers and pressmen loved circumlocutions and euphemisms - they wrote at great length than we do now, and liked imagery and even biblical references - so I doubt one word would catch everything.

Others might know more.

Phil

[Magpie]

Hi all, I was looking through old papers online for traces of similar cases pre 1888 and using key words like 'Prostitute' 'Knife' 'Cut' etc then it occurred to me that in my life time the name for a prostitute has changed in the press at least once if not twice (Prostitute, Working Woman and then just Woman). Also I remembered (just for an example) my nan used to call every cup a beaker. If I had to do an internet search on that I would need the name 'beaker' instead of cup in order to get an effective search. So, if you could throw a couple of relevant key words my way that you think the press might use it would be appreciated. Thank you.

Are you looking for slang or euphemisms?

I've read "Daughters of the Abyss" and "Daughters of joy" used. "Gay women" was used to describe prozzies who solicited at pleasure gardens, theatres, races and such venues.

Dollymop referred originally to maids or other domestic who engaged in a little prostitution on the side.

[Magpie]

Steven Marcus' book "The Other Victorians" explains several terms for prozzies during the era. It's surprising (or perhaps not) that the terms originally tended to apply very specifically (like the "Dollymop" mentions above) but later spread to all hookers equally.

[Errata]

"Fallen Woman" is another one, and "whore" would have been more common that prostitute. Any reference to a "drunken woman" implied she was a prostitute.

Although given the amount of general and somewhat distant outrage over the conditions of the slums in London, and the rise of social reform as a calling and a hobby I think that searching for anything prostitute oriented is going to get you a lot of treatises and angry letters to the editor.

I might focus on the criminal aspects, not the victims. Mutilated, butchered, outraged (although that will get you rapes as well), maybe defiled. Or suspect oriented terms like madman, fiend, monster, etc.

[Carol]

Hi Chudmuskett,

Archaic started a thread earlier this year called 'Ripper-Related Victorian Vocabulary'. There are quite a number of different names for prostitutes in it.
Sorry I can't give you a link as I don't know how to do it!

Carol

[Phil Carter]

Hello Phil H,

I believe there are quite a few in the census records through the Victorian years.

kindly

Phil

Source: Vague recollection

[Phil Carter]

Hi Chudmuskett,

Archaic started a thread earlier this year called 'Ripper-Related Victorian Vocabulary'. There are quite a number of different names for prostitutes in it.
Sorry I can't give you a link as I don't know how to do it!

Carol

Hello Carol,

Indeed.. It's here..

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=174975

kindly

Phil

Source: Casebook Forums thread

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all, I was looking through old papers online for traces of similar cases pre 1888 and using key words like 'Prostitute' 'Knife' 'Cut' etc then it occurred to me that in my life time the name for a prostitute has changed in the press at least once if not twice (Prostitute, Working Woman and then just Woman). Also I remembered (just for an example) my nan used to call every cup a beaker. If I had to do an internet search on that I would need the name 'beaker' instead of cup in order to get an effective search. So, if you could throw a couple of relevant key words my way that you think the press might use it would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello chudmuskett

Your other option is to study the articles in the excellent Press Reports section here at Casebook and you can read directly how the newspapers of the day referred to the victims of the Whitechapel murders.

Good luck.

Chris

[Tom_Wescott]

Pard

I have a word I want to throw out to all the brainiacs on here....'pard'. To put it in context, one paper chose to head their article covering Le Grand's 1891 trial with the title 'Jack the Ripper's Pard'. The best I can come up with is that pard here means 'pardon'. The only alternative I can think of is 'pardner', slang for partner, though I don't even know if that existed in America in 1891, let alone London.

Has anyone else seen 'pard' used? Any input would be appreciated.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Looked it up on some lexicons, and it used to mean leopard or panther, and colloquially in British English “fellow“, “chap“. Never heard of it before, apart from the quote you're mentioning.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page
wiktionary too says “leopard“ or “chap“. Or “partner“.

[The Grave Maurice]

Tom,

I used to read a lot of Zane Grey and his works, along with other writers about the old American west, were full of "pards": e.g., "Not so fast, pard"; "Keep your hand away from that six-shooter, pard, if ya know what's good for ya", etc.

Without having seen the article you refer to, I'd guess that the word means "partner" and I'm pretty sure that it was in common use, at least in the US, well before the 1890s. Sounds like an Americanism that a London journalist picked up to add colour (or maybe color) to his copy.

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks, Maria and Grave. So it having meant 'partner' might be a real possibility? I don't see how a leopard could come from it, but I'll keep looking.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

I guess what The Grave Maurice says makes sense. Now how could Le Grand have been characterized as “the Ripper's partner“, I have no idea. I'll think about it when more awake.
I don't see how a leopard could come into the equation either, but a leopard would be a cute addition. :-)

[Stephen Thomas]

I have a word I want to throw out to all the brainiacs on here....'pard'. To put it in context, one paper chose to head their article covering Le Grand's 1891 trial with the title 'Jack the Ripper's Pard'. The best I can come up with is that pard here means 'pardon'. The only alternative I can think of is 'pardner', slang for partner, though I don't even know if that existed in America in 1891, let alone London.

Has anyone else seen 'pard' used? Any input would be appreciated.

It's definitely not a word that has ever been used in the UK, Tom.

I assume, as has been suggested, that it's short for the American 'pardner'.

An interesting headline you've found there