Mistress vs Courtesan - What's the difference?
mistress | courtesan |
A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.
* , chapter=19
, title= A female teacher.
A female partner in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations.
A dominatrix.
* 2006 , Amelia May Kingston, The Triumph of Hope (page 376)
A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
* Addison
A woman regarded with love and devotion; a sweetheart.
(Scotland) A married woman; a wife.
* Sir (Walter Scott)
(obsolete) The jack in the game of bowls.
female companion to a master
(archaic) A woman of a royal or noble court.
(dated) The mistress of a royal or noble.
A prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.
In archaic terms the difference between mistress and courtesan
is that mistress is used as the title of a married woman before her name. Now used only in the abbreviated form Mrs while courtesan is a woman of a royal or noble court.As nouns the difference between mistress and courtesan
is that mistress is a woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership while courtesan is a woman of a royal or noble court.mistress
English
Noun
(es)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress , and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.}}
- As part of BDSM play they can enhance the domineering tread of a mistress or hobble the steps of a slave.
- A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic.
- (Clarendon)
- Several of the neighbouring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening.
- (Beaumont and Fletcher)
Usage notes
In the sexual sense, mistress is narrowly taken to mean a woman involved in a committed'' extramarital relationship (an affair), often supported financially (a kept woman). It is broadly taken to mean a woman involved in an extramarital relationship regardless of the level of commitment, but requires more than a single act of adultery.Tiger Woods Does Not Have 11 “Mistresses”: His many paramours aren’t committed enough to merit that term.by Jesse Sheidlower, '', Dec. 10, 2009.