(ho͝okˈər)
noun- One that hooks.
- Slang A prostitute.
Word History: In his
Personal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as
“a dangerous man … not subordinate to his superiors.” Hooker had his faults. He may indeed have been insubordinate; he was undoubtedly an erratic leader. But “Fighting Joe” Hooker is often accused of one thing he certainly did not do: he did not give his name to prostitutes. According to a popular story, the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch, and would spend much of their time in brothels when on leave. For this reason, as the story goes, prostitutes came to be known as
hookers. However attractive this theory may be, it cannot be true. The word
hooker with the sense “prostitute” is already recorded before the Civil War. As early as 1845 it is found in North Carolina, as reported in Norman Ellsworth Eliason's
Tarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. It also appears in the second edition of John Russell Bartlett's
Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859, where it is defined as “a strumpet, a sailor's trull.” Etymologically, it is most likely that
hooker is simply “one who hooks.” The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.
