Hooker is American slang for a woman who sells sex. It is informal, usually derogatory, and older than the story most people have heard about where it came from.
The General Hooker story is not true
The popular version says the word comes from General Joseph Hooker, a Union commander in the American Civil War whose camp was said to attract prostitutes. It is a good story and it is wrong. The word was in print in the 1840s, well before the war, and the General’s reputation probably helped it spread rather than creating it.
The likelier origin is plainer: hooking as in catching someone, or the Corlear’s Hook district of New York, which was known for it.
What it implies
Hooker carries street work with it, and a sense of the bottom of the trade. That is why it is used as an insult and why it is rarely a neutral description. It also flattens a very varied set of circumstances into a single dismissive word.
The words people actually use
- Escort. Usually implies arranged in advance, indoors, by the hour. What an escort is.
- Sex worker. The term most people in the trade prefer, and the one used by the organisations that support them.
- Call girl. Dated, and from the era of arranging by telephone. Call girl meaning.
- Prostitute. Still used in law and in the press, and the word the legislation uses. Escort or prostitute.
The law in England and Wales
None of these words changes the legal position, which turns on conduct and not vocabulary. Selling sex and paying for it are not offences in themselves. Soliciting in the street, running premises and controlling someone for gain all are. The UK law guide sets out which is which.