The linguistic interdiction in the Latin denominations for "whore"

Abstract

To explain the extraordinary proliferation of words for ‘prostitute’ in Latin, a linguistic phenomenon that has a high importance in this semantic field –and, in general, in the field of sexuality–must be considered: euphemism. Although most of the words for ‘prositute’ began as euphemisms, stricto sensu we may only consider the words that have two synchronous meanings or uses clearly different: a denotative meaning –that has no connection with prostitution itself– and an eufemistic meaning to refer to this sexual intercourse.