The corpus record — Latin

scortum

skin, hide; prostitute

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Carmina Omnia 1 · 39.06/10k
Truculentus 8 · 9.76/10k
Dion 1 · 6.74/10k
Mercator 5 · 5.84/10k
Menaechmi 5 · 5.26/10k
Captivi 4 · 4.62/10k
Vitellius 1 · 4.15/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40 - 39 6 · 4.07/10k
Bacchides 4 · 4.05/10k
Asinaria 3 · 3.71/10k
Ad Nationes 5 · 3.34/10k
De Pallio 1 · 2.92/10k

Densest 12 of 62 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. scortum — de Vaan

scortum 'skin, hide; prostitute' [n. ο] (Ρ1.+; 'skin, hide' only in Varro) Derivatives: scortari 'to consort with prostitutes' (P1.+), scortator 'who consorts with prostitutes' (P1.+), scortes 'goat-head skins' (Paul, ex K), scorteus 'made of hide' (Varro+). Pit. *skort-o-. PIE *sk(o)rt-o- 'cutting'. IE cognates: see s.v. cortex. The word for 'skin' was used as a euphemism for 'prostitute'. Since no verbal forms of … — [de Vaan, s.v. scortum, p. 560]

2. scortum — Lewis & Short

scortum, i, n.cf. Gr. xo/rion, corium; Lith. skurà, skin.

I Lit., a skin, hide (post-class. and rare): pellem antiqui dicebant scortum, Varr. L. L. 7, § 84 Müll.: jam Omphale in Herculis scorto designata descripsit, Tert. Pall. 4 med.—

II Transf., a harlot, strumpet, prostitute (freq. and class.): scorta appellantur meretrices, quia ut pelliculae subiguntur. Omnia namque ex pellibus facta scortea appellantur, Fest. pp. 330 and 331 Müll.—Sing., Plaut. Am. 1, 1, 132; id. As. 4, 2, 5; 5, 2, 17; 5, 2, 79 et saep.; Ter. Eun. 3, 1, 34; id. Ad. 5, 9, 8; Hor. C. 2, 11, 21; id. Ep. 1, 18, 34; Tib. 4, 10, 4.—Plur., Plaut. Bacch. 4, 4, 91; id. Pers. 3, 3, 14; id. Truc. 1, 1, 43 sq. et saep.; Cic. Mil. 21, 55; id. Cat. 2, 5, 10 al.—Of a male prostitute, Plaut. Curc. 4, 1, 12; Cic. Sest. 17, 39; id. Phil. 2, 18, 44; Petr. 9, 6; 119, 25; so also, virile, Aur. Vict. Caes. 28.—And with a masc. pron.: scortum exoletum ne quis in proscenio Sedeat, Plaut. Poen. prol. 17 (cf. senium, II. A.).—Also = pellex, a mistress, concubine, Plaut. Cas. Grex, 5 and 7.

3. scortum — Walde–Hofmann

scortum, -i n, „Fell, Tierhaut; weibliche oder männliche Hure* (seit Varro, Plaut. (scortum Héraclis ,Lówenhaut"], vgl. scortes Fest. p. 330, scortea f. „Lederschlauch für UI“, Meringer WuS. 7, 3, scorteus seit Varro, scortor seit Plt., scortulum seit Tert., scortdtor seit Plt., -ätrix seit Ps. Rufin, -ätus, -is seit Apul, -Atiö seit Aug): zu corium, cortex (Jurmann KZ. 11,398, Curtius 508, Vanicek 311, vgl. oben I … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. scortum, p. 1403]

In the wild

scorti Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni 10.1.42
scortum Tibullus, Elegiae 3.16.4
scortum Livy, Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40 - 39 p44
scortum Plautus, Asinaria 5.2
scorti Juvenal, Saturae 1.3.135
scortum Plautus, Menaechmi 1.2

6 of 136 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. scortum (scan p. 560; entry #1570).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. scortum (scan p. 628; entry #10368).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. scortum (scan p. 1403; entry #2504).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.