Etymology

courtesan

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Today it means: A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients. Full definition →

Middle French courtisane ← Italian cortigiana ← Latin cohors
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcohors
  2. Italian · derived fromcortigiana
  3. Middle French · borrowed fromcourtisane
  4. English todaycourtesan

Borrowed from Middle French courtisane, from Italian cortigiana, feminine of cortigiano (“courtier”), from corte (“court”), itself from Latin cohors.

Words from the same roots

Italiancortigiana all →

courtisanerie

Latincohors all →

courtcohortcahootscane corso

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.