The Slang Term Hooker

I often wonder where the heck these fancy slang words come from.  For instance, the word "hooker" has a very colorful origin indeed. 

A nighttime hooker soliciting her clients

My Post from January 6, 2018, "Why I Don't Call Them Whores" applies to the term "hooker" also.  Why I don't call them hookers?  I have too much respect for them. 

Less demeaning than the term "whore", the cartoonish-like slang word "hooker" is illustrious in that it is transcendent of historic significance, something that would hardly

Civil War Union 
Army Major General 
Joseph Hooker 

seem fitting considering its present-day diction. On its face, the term would appear to bare its roots as in "hooking a customer" which is in part factual. However this modern day popular name for a prostitute has a greater significance than merely being a descriptive term relative to aggressive sales tactics.  

During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln had to replace Union Army Maj. Gen Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker before finding a General of his liking to lead the Union Army. General Hooker's rightful place historically has no significance as does General Ulysses S. Grant, however, he has a very unique place in military lore as the alleged namesake of a term "hooker" for women of ill repute. He allegedly allowed his troops to consort with prostitutes, hence the term “hooker.” 

Soldiers of Army of the Potomac, in which Hooker served, cheerfully named the hordes of female Union Army Camp followers that employed their trade on the weary infantry, "Hooker's Legions."

Corlear’s Hook Lower
Manhattan East River
New York City

The popularity of the slang term became far and wide in the Union Army as General Hooker would often throw parties attended by “fallen doves,” as prostitutes were also known at the time.  The term had a reaching attraction which was cause for a large red-light district in Washington becoming known as “Hooker’s Division.”

Although General Hooker takes the credit for the widespread acceptance of the slang word - Hooker, there is recognition of another historic use of this term.  Many decades prior to the Civil War, a part of New York City's East River Wharfs on Manhattan's Lower East Side known as Corlear's Hook was an elaborate array of brothels. 

Corlear's Hook East River Wharf - Lower Manhattan

Prostitutes would brazenly solicit sailors and other men in such a notorious manner that it became the lure of Hook's sex trade.  Its reputation as a place for prostitution was such that the prostitutes that worked there were nicknamed "Hookers."

What is present-day Manhattan's South Street Seaport, the charming sightseeing attraction - about 200 years ago this section of Lower Manhattan was an area bustling with the sex trade.  

The Brothels of Corlear's Hook 

By the year 1836 eighty-seven brothels were open for business in the Hook. It was almost considered a legal endeavor to prostitute for sex which in fact was the conception of streetwalking prostitutes becoming practical celebrities.  

The folklore tale known as the "Gangs of New York" - illustrated in the film of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio - originated in Corlear's Hook. These were the wild west days of the East.  Just like the wild, wild west, gun fights without the grit, all-be-it - plenty of prostitutes - hookers just like the wild, wild, west only less grit and no horses.

Click to view the YouTube Movie Trailer, "The Gangs of New York"