Gigolo

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Male escort or social companion

title: "Gigolo" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920s-neologisms", "escorts", "male-prostitution", "sex-industry", "male-prostitutes-by-type", "gendered-occupations"] description: "Male escort or social companion" topic_path: "general/1920s-neologisms" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigolo" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Male escort or social companion ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox occupation"]

FieldValue
nameGigolo
official_namesMale escort, call boy
typeMale prostitute
activity_sectorSex industry
employment_fieldSex worker
related_occupationStripper, porn actor, sugar dating
::

| name = Gigolo | synonyms = | pronounce = | image = | alt = | caption = | official_names = Male escort, call boy | type = Male prostitute | activity_sector = Sex industry | competencies = | formation = | employment_field = Sex worker | related_occupation = Stripper, porn actor, sugar dating

A gigolo ( ) is a male escort, call boy or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship.

The term gigolo usually implies a man who adopts a lifestyle consisting of a number of such relationships serially rather than having other means of support.

The gigolo is expected to provide companionship, to serve as a consistent escort with good manners and social skills, and often to serve as a dancing partner as required by the woman in exchange for the support. Many gifts, such as expensive clothing and an automobile to drive, may be lavished upon him. The relationship may include sexual services as well, and he also can be referred to as a "kept man."

The word gigolo may be traced to a first usage in English as a neologism during the 1920s as a back-formation from gigolette, a French word for a woman hired as a dancing partner. Both gigolo and gigolette were first recorded in French in the middle part of the 19th century, referring to dance club denizens in Montmartre paid to dance with, and sometimes have sex with, unaccompanied male visitors. In the latter part of the 19th century, particularly after the scandalous murder case known in Paris as the , the term gigolo took on connotations of the exotic, foreign male whose company and affections could be purchased by well-to-do French women.

In popular culture

Films

Music

TV series

Novels

References

References

  1. "Definition of gigolo".
  2. (2009-03-09). "'Swiss Gigolo' Sentenced to Six Years".
  3. (2009-03-06). "''Gigolo Trial: Trial to Begin for Man Who Duped Germany's Richest Woman''". Spiegel Online.
  4. "A man who is kept by a woman".
  5. Maza, Sarah. (September 2018). "The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris . By Aaron Freundschuh.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017. Pp. viii+258. $24.95 (paper).". The Journal of Modern History.
  6. Freundschuh, Aaron. ''The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris'' (2017, Stanford University Press)

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1920s-neologismsescortsmale-prostitutionsex-industrymale-prostitutes-by-typegendered-occupations