Talk:prostibulum

Etymology
J. N. Adams in "Words for Prostitute in Latin" (1983) says the etymology of prostibulum is pro + stabulum (inn) due to the habit of standing in front of inns to advertise, though he also acknowledges the possibility of the etymology listed here already. I think Adams' assertion is also worth listing, but I am not well versed in how to add these sorts of things. If anyone has the time and inclination to do so (and agrees with me) then I think it would be worth adding.

Caligulady (talk) 10:08, 16 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Doesn't sound very plausible. Equinox ◑ 10:11, 16 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Why not? It seems equally plausible to the other suggestion. Here's J. N Adams argument for the etymology:
 * "It is possible that prostibulum is a derivative of prosto. Just as stabulum literally means 'place where one stops' (< sto), so prostibulum might originally have meant 'place where one prostat, stands in front, prostitutes oneself', i.e. 'brothel'. But the meaning 'prostitute' is attested earlier than 'brothel' (see below, p. 331), and it is therefore preferable to take the word as a derivative of stabulum. For the senses of stabulum (not 'brothel', but 'inn' or 'stable') see T. Kleberg, Hotels, restaurants et cabarets dans V antiquité romaine (Uppsala, 1957), pp. 1 8 f . Inns were a notorious haunt of prostitutes: note Dig. 23.2.43 'palam quaestum faceré dicemus non tantum earn, quae in lupanario se prostituii, uerum etiam si qua (ut adsolet) in taberna cauponia uel qua alia pudori suo non parcit'. Hence the Pompeian graffito CIL IV. 8442 'futui coponam' almost certainly refers to intercourse with a whore, and it is even possible that copona (which haa previously been used = copa only at Lucil. 128; its usual sense was 'inn': on the semantics, see below, p. 339) would have been taken, at least by implication, as an equivalent of meretrix. See further Herter, JbAC 3 (1960), pp. 73 f. Daremberg-Saglio (III.2.1836) take stabula in the sense 'maisons de prostitution."
 * Quoted from Adams, J. N. “Words for ‘Prostitute’ in Latin.” Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie 126, no. 3/4 (1983): 330.
 * Caligulady (talk) 07:42, 18 October 2022 (UTC)