Brothel
From Free net encyclopedia
Brothels are establishments (usually illegal) specifically dedicated to prostitution and may be confined to special red-light districts in large cities. Those businesses have prostitutes who pay a fee to stay on the premises. When a patron arrives, he has the opportunity to choose a partner and the deal (i.e. which acts are going to be performed and how much the patron is going to be charged) is between the prostitute and her client. Licensed brothels are legal in several rural counties of Nevada and in some countries outside of the USA.
There is a long list of synonyms; some are proper words but most are either slang or foreign language words.
Other names for a brothel include:
Historical and rarer slang terms for brothels include:
- bawdy house (also used as a legal term)
- bordel (from the French)
- bovril
- case (compare Spanish casa or Italian casa chiusa)
- chicken house - Cantonese literal translation
- common-house*
- creep
- crib
- demimonde (from the French for underworld)
- dress-house
- drum
- flash-house
- flesh-shambles
- gaff
- harlot-house
- hook shop
- hot house*
- house of ill/evil repute/fame
- house of accommodation
- house of assignation
- house of joy
- house of horizontal refreshment
- joy-house
- juke
- kip
- knocking-shop
- leaping house
- lupanar (from Latin)
- maison close (French closed house)
- maison de passe (house of trick)
- maison de tolérance (tolerated house, i.e. licensed)
- massage parlour
- meat house
- moll-shop
- notch-house
- nunnery*
- panel-house
- parlour-house
- peg house
- picked hatch*
- public house
- rap club
- rib-joint
- slaughter-house
- smuggling-ken
- sporting-house
- stew
- trugging house/place
- vaulting house
- warren
- whore-shop/sty
(* used by Shakespeare) Many of these are or originated as euphemisms, and their variety is affected in part by the euphemism treadmill.
See also
de:Bordell et:Lõbumaja fr:Lupanar he:בית בושת nl:Bordeel pl:Dom publiczny pt:Prostíbulo ru:Публичный дом simple:Brothel sv:Bordell zh:一樓一鳳