world's oldest profession
1
8.3
- noun
- NSFW
:
la profesión más antigua del mundo
- Prostitution is often referred to as the world's oldest profession due to its long history.
Examples
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Some people refer to prostitution as the world's oldest profession.
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The phrase world's oldest profession is commonly used to avoid directly mentioning prostitution.
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He joked that politicians have much in common with those in the world's oldest profession.
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Many people refer to prostitution as the world's oldest profession.
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Isn't it ironic how the world's oldest profession is still controversial?
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Many people joke that working in the sex industry is the world's oldest profession.
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In discussions about society, some claim that the world's oldest profession is still one of the most controversial.
Synonyms
134
5.1
An activity in which someone has sex with another person for money
2
9.9
The practice of having sex for money
Surface Forms
Morphology
world's + old + profession
Although the words 'world's', 'oldest' and 'profession' compose a literal meaning of the earliest job, the conventional euphemistic reference to prostitution is a culturally specific, idiomatic sense that cannot be derived from the constituents alone. A B1 learner who only knows the component words would not reliably infer the prostitution meaning without prior exposure, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
World's oldest profession comes from a joking idea that selling sex was one of the first 'jobs' people had, so it must be very old. That's why people use it as a polite or humorous way to mean 'prostitution'.