false or true friend: callboy

[kameier]

One of my students wrote a film review in which she used the word "callboy" to mean "male prostitute". My question now is whether this word is a false friend or not.

I couldn't find it in one of the common Learner's Dictionaries, but interestingly in the English Wikipedia the word seems to exist but you're directed to the entry of "prostitution". So I really don't know whether it exists in that sense or not.

More and more English or pseudo-English words enter the German language and sometimes you get confused as non-native speaker. Help appreciated.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by kameier

One of my students wrote a film review in which she used the word "callboy" to mean "male prostitute". My question now is whether this word is a false friend or not.

I couldn't find it in one of the common Learner's Dictionaries, but interestingly in the English Wikipedia the word seems to exist but you're directed to the entry of "prostitution". So I really don't know whether it exists in that sense or not.

More and more English or pseudo-English words enter the German language and sometimes you get confused as non-native speaker. Help appreciated.

If you look on Google, it seems to be a lot more common in American slang than I expected. Personally, I've never heard it used in British English - the usual term is 'rent-boy'; but it may well be common in gay slang.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by kameier

One of my students wrote a film review in which she used the word "callboy" to mean "male prostitute". My question now is whether this word is a false friend or not.

I couldn't find it in one of the common Learner's Dictionaries, but interestingly in the English Wikipedia the word seems to exist but you're directed to the entry of "prostitution". So I really don't know whether it exists in that sense or not.

More and more English or pseudo-English words enter the German language and sometimes you get confused as non-native speaker. Help appreciated.

The word is in American dictionaries, but it has more than one meaning. I assume the "prostitute" meaning is newer and relates to "callgirl".

call·boy (kôl'boi')
n.

1. One who tells performers when it is time for them to go on stage.
2. A bellhop.
3. A male prostitute hired by telephone.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[Ouisch]

Call girls and call boys are a higher level of prostitute. They usually work for agencies and have an established clientele. They don't walk the streets soliciting sex. A male prostitute who has sex with other men is usually called a "hustler."




/I swear I only know these things because I've read about them.

[kameier]

Thank you so much for this feedback! It has shown me once more that language can be really tricky and I keep learning:

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Coffa

If you look on Google, it seems to be a lot more common in American slang than I expected. Personally, I've never heard it used in British English - the usual term is 'rent-boy'; but it may well be common in gay slang.

But 'rent-boy' isn't quite the same as 'call-boy' (which, as Ouisch explained in such remarkable detail , is quite a high-class operator). A 'rent-boy' is a down-and-out who trades his (homo-)sexual favours for shelter.

b

PS -
That said, I have never heard the term in BE. But I have met 'call-girl', and I'd guess (if I met it) it was a male analogue of that (i.e. probably hetero-sexual).