Forms: 6 (cortegian), curtisaine, cortisan, 6–7 curtisan, -zan, 7 curtesan, -zan(e, courtisan(e, 6– courtesan, 7– -zan. [a. F. courtisane, ad. It. cortigiana, in Florio cortegiana ‘a curtezane, a strumpet,’ orig. woman attached to the court, fem. of cortigiano. In quotation 1565 directly from Italian.] A court-mistress; a woman of the town, a prostitute. (A somewhat euphemistic appellation: cf. quots. 1607, 1635.)
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, 84 b. The rest of the brethren dooe keepe Courtisanes.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 409. M. Harding … hath beene in Rome, hath seene Bishops, and Cardinals men of warre … Open Stewes so deerely rented: so many thousand Cortegians so well regarded.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 369. His misdemeanours … with courtesans and common strumpets.
1607. E. Sharpham, Fleire, D ij b. Your whore is for euery rascall, but your Curtizan is for your Courtier.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., I. (1646), 147. The name Courtezan (being the most honest synonymy that is given to a Whore) had his originall from the Court of Rome.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), 342. Accus’d to have dress’d her like a Curtizan.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Curtezan, a gentile fine Miss, or Quality Whore.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., I. 296. The lewd leer of a courtezan.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), I. III. iv. 420. She had ministered to the licentious pleasures of the populace as a courtezan.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 160. The ambitious courtesan who now ruled the king.
fig. 1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. v. § 11. That knowledge may not be as a courtesan, for pleasure … but as a spouse, for generation.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. (1682), 18. For fear of Excommunication from that Anti-christian Curtezan.
Hence Courtesan v. nonce-wd., to make or treat as a courtesan. Courtesanism, Courtesanship, the practice and position of a courtesan.
1651. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, I. iii. 13. The Ladies … curtesied him, but he curtizaned not them.
1840. (title) Woman, Physiologically considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage … Concubinage, Courtezanism, Infidelity, Divorce, etc.
1840. Tait’s Mag., VII. 562. She amassed no wealth by her courtezanship.
1880. Ebsworth, in Bagf. Ballads, Amanda Group, 534*. We might have shown the Courtezanship, not only of Stuart times, but also during the reign of the Virgin Queen.
