hooker:

A prostitute , more often a female, but can be of either sex . Still chiefly a US term, but widely understood by Anglophones of most countries. See prostitute for synonyms.
ETYMOLOGY: Wrongly attributed to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker who supposedly recruited prostitutes to service his troops or because of the unruly conduct of his men during the Civil War. Washington's red-light district (south of Constitution Avenue) was named Hooker's Division or Hookers Brigade because it was frequented by his men and because he later put it off limits to them.
The word hooker appeared earlier, in the 1859 (2 ^nd ) edition of John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms : ' a strumpet , a sailor's trull '. Russell attributed the word to Corlear's Hook, a red-light district in New York City, but this was only a guess.

Quote: Jane Harper (Jane Fonda) and hubby Dick (George Segal) in Fun with Dick and Jane (1977):
-- Jane: ' I'm a college graduate, reasonably intelligent, not at all together unattractive .'
-- Dick: ' Yes, but will you be happy being a hooker? '
-- Jane: ' Interesting that the only two jobs you consider me qualified for are secretary and hooker .'
-- Dick: ' You're not qualified to be a secretary .'

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