Demimondaine

mary whalen · 13 Jul 1998, 23:53 · from urth-v0016.mbox · original

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From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Subject: (urth)  Demimondaine
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 23:53:09
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This is Sean Whalen (prion).

Did Robert Borski have a theory that some of the prostitutes in the
Maison du chien in tFHoC were aborigines?  Well, when I reread the
book, the first time their function was named, No. 5 called them
demimondaines.  Now, the primary meaning of this word is not
prostitute, it is a woman who maintains herself on the largess of her
current lover.  It can also mean prostitute, however.

But, why did he use a term that primarily means something else?  Well,
he does it elsewhere, such as chien meaning wolf as well as dog, and
saltimbique meaning charlatan as well as performer.  However, it's
possible, though I'm not completely convinced, that the prostitutes
are abos and that he used the word partly because the radical meaning
is half-worldly.  It is used the way it is because such people live on
the fringes of decency, while not going directly over it (in it's
primary definition, I assume).  It's also made up of a Greek word and
a French word, perhaps because of the names of some of the women there.

I'm not sure if it really has any significance, but I thought others
might want some new information to use.

prion
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