Forms: 4 strumpat, strompat, 4–6 strompet, 5–6 -ett(e, (5 strompyd, 6 stroumpet), 5–6 strumpett(e, (5 -ytt), 7 strompit(t, strumpitt, 4– strumpet. [Of obscure origin; for conjectures see Skeat.] A debauched or unchaste woman, a harlot, prostitute.
a. 1327. Pol. Poems (Camden), 153. Uch a strumpet that ther is such drahtes wl drawe. Ibid., 155. That heo be kud ant knewe For strompet in rybaudes rewe.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. i. (1868), 6. Þise comune strumpetis of siche a place þat men clepen þe theatre [L. has scenicas meretriculas].
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xxiii. 17. There shal be no strumpet [1388 hoore] of the douȝtres of Yrael.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 299. He fonde seven children i-leyde bysides a pond, þat a strompat hadde i-bore at oon burþen.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 3. Sho become þe moste common strompyd in all þe land.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., IV. x. in Ashm. (1652), 146. For seldome have Strumpetts Chyldren of them I bore.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 140 b, marg. Stroumpettes and paramoures.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. V., 21 b. Shores wife a vile and abhominable strompet.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 17. This yere the comyn strompettes that ware takene in London ware raye hoddes.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 174. A strumpets boldnesse.
1604. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 434. If any man or woman call a wedded woman common strumpitt.
1631. Dekker, Match Mee, IV. K. As I am thy wife Make not thy selfe a strompit of me.
1683. Hedges, Diary, 11 Dec. I. 143. He regards nothing but to enjoy his little Seraglio of 6 Strumpets.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 286, ¶ 1. An innocent Creature who would start at the Name of a Strumpet, may think it pretty to be called a Mistress.
1864. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene, 451. The most degraded and dangerous strumpets are allowed to congregate round our barracks without hindrance.
1889. J. M. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Women, xxii. (ed. 4), 186. This is a disease of childhood, and the only exception to this I have seen was in a very young strumpet.
b. fig. and of things personified.
1545. Bale, Image Both Ch., I. ix. (1550), K v. They knowe the open whoredome of the babylonicall strompet.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, lxxiii. 21 b. I do say that an uryne is a strumpet, or an harlot, for it wyl lye, and the best Doctour of Phisicke of them all maye be deceyved in an uryne.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 799/2. John Houshold was charged to haue called … the Pope him selfe a strong strumpet, and a common baude vnto the world.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 61. France is a Bawd to Fortune, and king Iohn, That strumpet Fortune, that vsurping Iohn. Ibid. (1602), Ham., II. ii. 515. Out, out, thou Strumpet-Fortune.
1663. Patrick, Parab. Pilgrim, xxviii. (1687), 320. Those Divine Souls, who had converted the Muses, and of Courtesans and lewd Strumpets made them turn Religious and Saintly Creatures.
1727. P. Walker, Vind. Cameron’s Name, Biog. Presbyt. (1827), I. 315. That old Gray-headed Strumpet Prelacy.
1915. C. W. Saleeby, in Contemp. Rev., March, 335. The Kaiser and his parasites have gone a-whoring after Bellona, the deadliest strumpet that ever wrecked the souls and bodies of men.
c. quasi-adj. That is a strumpet.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vi. 16. The skarfed barke puts from her natiue bay, Hudg’d and embraced by the strumpet winde.
a. 1634. ? Chapman, Alphonsus, V. i. 175. Will not your Grace dispatch the Strumpet Queen?
1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, XXIII. Oft have I said in words unkind, That strumpet Fortune’s very blind.
d. attrib. and Comb., as strumpet blood, flattery; strumpet-like adj. and adv.; strumpet-wise adv., after the manner of a strumpet.
1599. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. v. Disloyal to our Hymniall [sic] rites, What raging heat rains in thy *strumpet blood?
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Conclus. 64. But laying down his head among the *strumpet flatteries of Prelats, while he sleeps … they wickedly shaving off all those … tresses of his laws, and just prerogatives…, deliver him over [etc.].
1574. J. Bradford, Two Notable Serm., ii. K vj b. If thou doo not altogether consider Christes mynde, thou dealest vnhonestly & *strumpetlike with him. For it is the propertye of strumpets to consider the thynges geuen … them, rather then the loue … of the geuer.
1579. Northbrooke, Dicing, 28 b. Ludi Florales, which were abhominable plaies in Rome, to the honour of their strumpetlike Goddesse Flora.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 28. The more then strumpet-like impudence of these sarsenet judges.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 63. *Strumpet-wise fingring a lute, as the manner is,… where such are allowed, to invite customers to them.
Hence † Strumpethood, the condition of being a strumpet. † Strumpetier, a whore-monger. Strumpetocracy jocular, government by strumpets. † Strumpetry, harlotry (in quot. fig.).
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, 54. Þe couetus hart, for lufe of penys, to fendis strumpetry hys bosum opyns.
a. 1440. Found. St. Bartholomew’s (E.E.T.S.), 55. And no more the ȝiftis of suche men plesith hym than the wagis of strompethode.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter ii. 20, 1035. O that our luxurious Strumpetiers could reade in their diseased bodies the estate of their leprous soules.
1818. Edin. Rev., XXX. 425. In the Strumpetocracy of France, he had risen to this post by the most servile attention to Madame de Pompadour.
1833. Carlyle, Misc. Ess., Diderot (1888), 28. Where Denis (for heretical Metaphysics and irreverence to the Strumpetocracy) languishes in durance.
1899. H. S. Wilson, in New Cent. Rev., V. 168. Zola wants to show in action the morals and manners … which developed the aristocracy of the Bourse and the strumpetocracy of Paris.
