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Word origins | Kerhane

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Mavi Boncuk |

KERHÂNE i. brothel, EN [1], bordello[2] panel house[3](from PE kār “iş” ve ḫāne “ev, yer” > kār-ḫāne’den) 1. Umumhâne, genelev [Bu anlam argodan alınmıştır]: Ne geçti elime bu hayâtın / Meyhânesinde, kerhânesinde (Câhit S. Tarancı). 2. eski. İş yeri, kârhâne.

KERHÂNECİ  i. 1. Umumhâne işleten kimse. 2. Küfür sözü olarak kullanılır: Ne yapalım, kerhâneciyi kusturup suratlarınıza sürecek değilim ya! (Bediî Fâik).

UMUMHÂNE (ﻋﻤﻮﻣﺨﺎﻧﻪ) i. (Ar. ‘umūm “genel” ve Fars. ḫāne “ev, yer” ile ‘umūm-ḫāne) Genelev.


The first Brothels, known as Umumhane and referred to as "school" in the expression of the youth, were opened in Istanbul towards the end of the 19th century, especially during the Crimean War (1853-1856), in order to meet the basic needs of the soldiers and began to be institutionalized. The brothels, which were opened in Galata and later in Beyoğlu and became very popular, still maintain their places and continue their services, even though they have faced many difficulties today.

The word "kerhane" does not come from "kar-hane", which means "workplace, factory" in Persian. The origin of the word is the Arabic word “kerh”: kerh means “disgust, disgust”. Over time, "haneyi", which means "home" in Persian, was added to the end of Kerh, and it became "kerhhane". The word has become lighter, one of the "h" has fallen, as a result, it has become a "brothel" with its current name. Well, did brothels suddenly appear at the end of the 19th century? Of course no. Until that period, there are various houses that were used for prostitution. However, in these houses, either only one person works, or the places operate temporarily and change places frequently due to the fear of the police. Therefore, they do not maintain their existence as a visible business.

Brothels (official ones) usually congregate on certain streets. Zürefa and Abonoz Street are among the oldest and most historical streets of Istanbul. I think that Zurefa Street, one of the streets still functioning today, should be examined and scrutinized. Zürefa Street, which was put into service during the reign of Abdulhamid  II. , was named Zürafa Street after the proclamation of the Republic.Zürefa means lesbian in Ottoman Turkish. Changing Zürefa to Zürafa (Giraffe) is actually a
mistake. 

Similarly, Reşat Ekrem Koçu,in his article on “police of morals (ahlâk zabıtası)” in sixteenth-century Istanbul, writes that since slavery was legal, traders were selling women as “slaves” to buyers, i.e. sailors, who paid some

Akçes as a deposit.Then these buyers were returning the women with the excuse that they were lame.

In this transaction, both sellers and buyers knew that there would be a return. An archival document dated 1583 points to such an“illegal” form of slave trade and warns officials to pay attention to it.

Basing himself on a record of slaves dated 1640, Yaşar Yücel mentions a similar case in the seventeenth century. He writes that from over100 slave traders, about 19 were involved in the illegal trade of Muslim slaves. They first bought some Muslim female slaves from their owners by the promise to sell them for a much higher price and then sold themto foreigners such as Polish and Moldovan ambassadors. After a while, they received these women back and returned them to their first owners under the excuse that the buyers did not like them.

Besides slave traders who were involved in this “illegal” form of trafficking in women, there were groups of artisans (esnaf ) called esnaf-ızenkahbegan (procurers/ kadın tellalı), who, according to Evliya Çelebi, were 212 in Istanbul in 1633. Of course “legal” slave trade was not the only way of trafficking in women. All these sources underline the fact that trafficking in women mostly took place under the guise of legal slave trade but fail to show that there were indeed other forms of trafficking in women.

[1] brothel: (n.) "bawdy house," 1590s, shortened from brothel-house, from brothel "prostitute" (late 15c.), earlier "vile, worthless person" of either sex (14c.), from Old English broðen past participle of breoðan "deteriorate, go to ruin," from Proto-Germanic *breuthan "to be broken up," related to *breutan "to break" (see brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.

A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution.

[2] bordello: (n.) c. 1300, bordel "house of prostitution," Italian, from Old French bordel "small hut, cabin; brothel" (12c.), diminutive of borde "hut made of planks," from Frankish *bord "wooden board" or some other Germanic source related to board from borde hut, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English bord board

The modern form (1590s) is a result of the French word being borrowed by Italian then passed back to French with a suffix and re-borrowed into English also from c. 1300.  First Known Use in English 1593

[3] Panel house: (obsolete) A brothel whose rooms have secret entrances to facilitate theft by accomplices of the inmates. Panel-house (said to be from 1840s; popular from 1870s) was old slang for a disreputable place (typically a bordello) with panneled rooms. At least one panel could be slid back to allow for thefts from customers and other cheats. Hence panel-thief, panel-game, etc.



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