PROSTITUTE’S CUSTOMER

baby noun, US, 1957
• Still and all, she had a small minute of
indecision when he brought the first
hundred-dollar baby to his apartment to
meet her. —John M. Murtagh and Sara
Harris, Cast the First Stone 1957

freak trick noun, US, 1971
a prostitute’s customer who pays for unusual
sex
• —Eugene Landy, The Underground
Dictionary 1971

geek noun, US, 1993
a prostitute’s customer with fetishistic desires
• — Washington Post 7th November 1993

john noun, US, 1906
From the sense as ‘generic man’, probably via
the criminal use as ‘dupe’ or ‘victim’.
• Russell recognised some of the pavement
princesses, whose pitch this normally was
[...] livid at missing their regular johns and
champagne tricks on their way back from
the City. —Greg Williams, Diamond Geezers
1997

lover noun, US, 1971
• A “lover” is a customer who is determined
to arouse the prostitute or to get her to
respond to him. —Charles Winick, The
Lively Commerce 1971

seventy-eight; 78 noun, US, 1971
a prostitute’s customer who is quickly satisfied
From early vinyl records that were played on a
turntable revolving 78 times per minute.
• A customer who worked quickly was called
a “78” and one with a slower response was
a “33.” —Charles Winick, The Lively
Commerce 1971

trick noun, US, 1925
• They had to keep an eye on the cops all the
time, because they weren’t allow to call the
tricks like the girls in Storyville. —Louis
Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans
1954