An escort is someone who is paid to spend time with a client. That might be dinner, an event, a night out or an evening at a hotel, and what happens during it is agreed privately between the adults involved.
Where the word comes from
Escort originally meant someone who goes with another person for protection or as a courtesy, as in a police escort or an escort to a ball. The paid companionship sense grew out of that. Advertisers favour it because it sounds more discreet and more professional than the alternatives, which is why it dominates adverts.
What the work involves
Most of it is ordinary. Answering messages, agreeing a time and a place, checking that the client is who they say they are, arriving on time and being good company. Some bookings are purely social: a dinner partner, a plus one for a wedding, company on a trip. Others include intimacy. Which is which is stated up front by the person offering it, and every part of it is her choice.
Escort, companion, sex worker, call girl
These overlap more than they differ. “Escort” and “companion” are the polite marketing words. “Sex worker” is the term used by the people doing the work and by most support organisations, and it covers everyone from street based workers to independent escorts. “Call girl” is older and rarely used in adverts now. In law none of the labels matters. What matters is what is exchanged, and whether anyone is being controlled or exploited.
Independent or agency
An independent escort works for herself. She sets her own rates, chooses her own bookings and deals with clients directly. An agency takes bookings on behalf of several people and usually keeps part of the fee. The difference matters in law, because controlling another person’s work for gain is an offence in a way that working alone is not.
Is it legal?
In England and Wales it is legal for two consenting adults to exchange company, or sex, for money. The offences sit around it: soliciting in a street or public place, keeping a brothel, and controlling or exploiting another person’s work. The full position, with the statutes, is in our guide to the law.
What people ask next
Most readers go on to one of four things: how booking works, what it costs, whether to go to her or have her come to you, and what the shorthand in an advert means.