courtesan

plural courtesans · alternative courtezan

1. A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.

   What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?

   1909, Charles Baudelaire, “The Irreparable”, in John Collings Squire, transl., Poems and Baudelaire Flowers

   1 more example

   In the notes he wrote for Nana, his novel about a courtesan in Second Empire Paris, Zola imagined ‘a whole society hurling itself’ at her body, ‘a pack of hounds after a bitch, who is not even on heat and makes fun of the hounds following her’. This might also describe the life of Harriette Wilson, whose unguarded pursuit by the leaders of the British aristocracy, the army, the government and opposition made her the most desired, and then the most dangerous, woman in Regency London.

   2014, Frances Wilson, The Courtesan's Revenge, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 10

   Synonyms: abandons, alley cat, almah, bangtail, Bankside lady, bargirl, bat, beotch

2. datedThe mistress of a royal or noble.
3. archaicA woman of a royal or noble court.
4. board gamesA fairy chess piece that can move to any adjacent square, that, when captured, the capturing piece is also eliminated.

   The courtesan moves like a mann, but whatever piece captures her is also removed from the board (unless it’s a king).

   2018 October 12, aabicus, “My 7 Favorite Fairy Chess Pieces”, in The Daily SPUF