scortum

From Proto-Indo-European *(s)kr̥-tó-m (“that which is cut; a cutting”), from the root *(s)ker- (“to cut”), which has other derivatives meaning “skin” or “bark”. Compare Latin scrōtum, scrautum, scrūta. See also corium, Proto-Germanic *skeraną (whence English shear), Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “I cut off”), Albanian harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”), Old Armenian քերեմ (kʻerem, “to scrape, scratch”). Piecewise doublet of curtum.

The prostitute sense may have arisen from the former skin, leather sense through scortum subigere (“beat leather; tan leather”), as an ancient metaphor for sexual intercourse. According to Festus, Scorta appellantur meretrices, quia ut pelliculae subiguntur, “Prostitutes are called ‘leathers’ because they are beaten/tanned like small skins.” Cf. Latin pellicula (“small skin; (in farce) whore”), Spanish pelleja (“skin, hide; whore”). Hammarström observes that skin removed from the animal is loose, flexible and lacks hold.

Compare typologically with cognate Russian шку́ра (škúra).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈskɔr.tũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈskɔr.tum]

scortum n (genitive scortī); second declension

1. harlot, prostitute (of either sex)

   Synonyms: (female) meretrīx, lupa, (Medieval Latin) apodix; (male) spintria

   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations 14.Nam ut cuiusque studium ex aetāte flāgrābat, aliīs scorta praebēre, aliīs canēs atque equōs mercārī..As the passions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others.
2. (pre-classical and post-classical, rare) animal skin stripped off, hide, fell, pelt

   Synonyms: spolium, corium, pellis

   Near-synonym: cutis

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, On the Latin Language 6:

     Apud Terentium: Scortatur, potat, olet vnguentum, de meo. Scortari est sæpius meretriculam ducere, quæ scortum dicta à pelle. Id enim non solum antiqui dicebant, sed etiam nunc dicimus scortea ea, quæ ex corio, & pellibus sunt facta. Inde in aliquot sacris ac sacellis scriptũ habemus: ne quod scorteum adhibeatur, ideo, ne morticinum quid adsit. In Atellanis licet animaduertere rusticos dicere, se adduxisse pro scorto pelliculam.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 160 CE – c. 225 CE, Tertullian, De pallio 4.3:

     Qualis ille Hercules in serico Omphales fuerit, iam Ompahle in Herculis scorto designata descripsit.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• → Italian: scorto

• “scortum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “scortum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "scortum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “scortum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• James N. Adams (1983), Words for 'prostitute' in Latin, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, Neue Folge, 126(3/4), pp. 321-358.
• M. Hammarström (1925), De uocibus scorti, scrattae, strittabillae, Éranos 23, pp. 104 ff.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃor.tum/, [ˈʃorˠ.tum]

sċortum

1. inflection of sċort:
   1. strong dative masculine/neuter singular
   2. strong/weak dative/instrumental masculine/feminine/neuter plural