gigolo means A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly. It carries an Arena rating of 1603, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gigolo ranks #770 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #946 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,722 of 17,106 for Most Storied Words, #3,993 of 17,136 for Most Malleable Words.
gigolo is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.ə.loʊ/.
Why “gigolo” is a great word
A man financially supported by a woman, typically in exchange for his companionship, romantic attention, or sexual services. From French *gigolo*, a back-formation from *gigolette* (“promiscuous dancing girl”), from *giguer* (“to dance”), from *gigue* (“fiddle; jig”). First attested in English in 1922. Unlike an “escort,” a term for a discrete, paid social companion, or a “male prostitute,” denoting a starkly transactional exchange, the gigolo implies a sustained, shadowed arrangement wrapped in the guise of a relationship. He is the scent of another woman’s perfume on a rented silk shirt, the calculated charm across a restaurant table paid for with her money, the performative intimacy in a borrowed penthouse—a melancholy dance of a man who sells not just his body, but the convincing illusion of his desire.
Etymology
First attested in English in 1922. From French gigolo (“young lover kept by an older woman”), first attested in that sense in 1904 (attested since 1850 in the sense “Amant de cœur, compagnon d'une gigolette", and since 1894 in the sense “elegant young man whose means of livelihood are dubious”), a back-formation from gigolette (“promiscuous dancing girl, girl available for hire as a dancing partner”), attested since 1850, from giguer (“to dance”), from gigue (“fiddle; type of dance; jig”). More at jig.
noun
- A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularlye.g.“How's the, uh, gigolo campaign going?” — 1972, Jay Presson Allen, Cabaret, spoken by Brian Roberts (Michael York):
- A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly; A hired escort or dancing partner.e.g.“I'm just a gigolo / And everywhere I go / People know the part I'm playin' / Paid for every dance / Sellin' each romance / Ooh, what they're sayin'” — 1929, “Just a Gigolo”, Irving Caesar (lyrics), Leonello Casucci (music):
- A man funded by women who find him attractive, particularly; A male prostitute with female clients.
verb
- To work or act as a gigolo.e.g.“He says he worked at one thing and another, whatever he could get, but near as I can figure out he was mostly gigoloing, and not finding too many heavy-money dames.” — 1933, Dashiel Hammett, chapter 11, in The Thin Man:
- To provide (someone) with the services of a gigolo.e.g.“He sat down at my table in an outdoor trattoria to gigolo me and promptly forgot his lines and went blank.” — 1982, Tom McHale, chapter 20, in Dear Friends, page 217:
- To offer (oneself or someone else) to someone as a gigolo.e.g.“It might be a joke on the rest of the world; it was also a joke on himself, that he had gigoloed himself to such scurfy stuff.” — 1931, Samuel Roth, chapter 21, in The Private Life of Frank Harris, page 257:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- fizgig 58% match — A flirtatious, coquettish girl, inclined to gad or gallivant about; a gig, a giglot, a jillflirt. vs gigolo →
- callboy 56% match — A bellhop. vs gigolo →
- manwhore 55% match — A man who has sex with clients for money; a male prostitute. vs gigolo →
- toyboy 55% match — A young male partner for a woman or man. vs gigolo →
- cicisbeo 54% match — A man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover. vs gigolo →
- femalist 54% match — Someone who courts or pursues the female sex; a womanizer. vs gigolo →
- playgirl 54% match — The female counterpart to a playboy: a woman, specially a wealthy one, who devotes herself to a life of leisure and pleasure, often sexual, without commitments or responsibilities. vs gigolo →
- cougaring 53% match — The seeking of casual, often sexual, companionship of younger males by an older woman. vs gigolo →