the.com/hooker
Slang for a prostitute, someone who exchanges sex for money, often out of economic necessity.
means A slang term for a prostitute, one who 'hooks' or snags clients off the street.
from The word predates the Civil War, showing up in print in the 1840s, so it can't literally come from General Joseph Hooker's Union Army camp followers — but his troops' reputation for carousing with prostitutes cemented the association in the popular imagination, and the folk story stuck harder than the facts. The more likely root is the simple verb 'hook,' meaning to snag or catch a customer, with an assist possibly from Corlear's Hook, a disreputable waterfront district in old New York.
- etymology myth
- often credited to Civil War general Joseph Hooker, probably false
- actual origin
- term predates the war, from Corlears Hook red-light district
- rugby meaning
- also the player who hooks the ball in a scrum