courtesan

Noun

courtesan (plural courtesans)

1. A female prostitute, especially one with high-status or wealthy clients.
   • What wine, what drug, what philtre known of man / Will drown this ancient foe, / Ruthless and ravenous as a courtesan, / Sure as an ant, and slow?1909, Charles Baudelaire, “The Irreparable”, in John Collings Squire, transl., Poems and Baudelaire Flowers
   • In the notes he wrote for Nana, his novel about a courtesan in Second Empire Paris, Zola imagined ‘a whole society hurling itself’ at her body, ‘a pack of hounds after a bitch, who is not even on heat and makes fun of the hounds following her’. This might also describe the life of Harriette Wilson...2014, Frances Wilson, The Courtesan's Revenge, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 10

   Synonyms:

   abandons, alley cat, almah, bangtail, Bankside lady, bargirl, bat, beotch, blouze, blowen

2. (dated) The mistress of a royal or noble.
3. (archaic) A woman of a royal or noble court.
4. A fairy chess piece that can move to any adjacent square, that, when captured, the capturing piece is also eliminated.
   • The courtesan moves like a mann, but whatever piece captures her is also removed from the board (unless it’s a king).2018 October 12, aabicus, “My 7 Favorite Fairy Chess Pieces”, in The Daily SPUF