# Etymology of the term "put out" re girls who willing to "put out"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 17, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180 "2002-11-17T17:24:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180/1 "2002-11-17T17:24:57Z")

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This fairly crude term is often used to describe girls who are willing to sexually service their dates (usually with minimal prompting) and are “easy”, although it seems to be a bit dated at this point.

What is the origin of this term?

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180/2 "2002-11-17T17:43:14Z")

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“put out” = “provide” or “produce”. My printer puts out CMYK printouts. My audio speakers put out sound of a certain decibel and frequency range.

See also “output”.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180/3 "2002-11-17T17:51:13Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \*  
> \*\*“put out” = “provide” or “produce”. My printer puts out CMYK printouts. My audio speakers put out sound of a certain decibel and frequency range.
> 
> See also “output”. \*\*

What it means is fairly obvious per your note. I suppose I should have been more clear and asked specifically what the history of this term was. I’m interested in when it came into favor to describing willing women. I thought it had more or less disappeared, but then I saw it used in another thread where a poster was describing herself as someone willing to “put out” fairly easily and realized it still had some currency. It has a 50’s 60’s flavor to it but I could be wrong.

I guess I’m really interested in the history of the term.

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**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-term-put-out-re-girls-who-willing-to-put-out/137180/4 "2002-11-17T18:20:33Z")

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The OED dates the phrase, meaning “Of a woman: to offer oneself for sexual intercourse”, to only as far bacl as 1947. It seems to me, at least, fairly obvious what it is that is being “put out” for the guy.