sister n.
1. on model of abbess n. (1), nun n. (1) a brothel prostitute.
Nocturnal Revels I 141: Every Sister [...] must be either young or handsome [...] this being considered a greater sacrifice to the Goddess Venus. |
2. (US) a term of address to any woman whose proper name one does or does not know.
L.A. Herald 10 Dec. 10/4: ‘Don’t yuh never git the notion bein’ a mechanic’s a cinch, sister‘. | ‘Our Theatrical Boarding House’ in||
AS I:3 153: ‘Sister’ for any woman or girl, and ‘Son’ for any boy. | ‘Westernisms’ in||
Congaree Sketches 16: How is you Sister? | ||
Story Omnibus (1966) 36: ‘Stop it, sister,’ I growled. ‘You’ll bust something.’. | ‘Fly Paper’||
🎵 Come on, sisters, light up on these weeds and get high and forget about everything. | ‘Man From Harlem’||
Pulp Fiction (2006) 95: McFee said, ‘I’m sorry, sister.’. | ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler||
(con. 1920s) Studs Lonigan (1936) 358: He would look at both of them [...] and say: That for you, sister! | Young Manhood in||
What’s In It For Me? 85: ‘It’s all right, sister,’ I said kindly. | ||
(con. 1917) Soldier Bill 45: Don’t call the girls ‘sister’, these girls are refined and do not want to be called sister. | ||
Man with the Golden Arm 93: I’m not layin’ you, sister — I’ll never lay you. | ||
Little Men, Big World 131: ‘You want something else?’ she called. ‘Yeah,’ said the taxi-driver, glaring at Downy. ‘A little service, sister.’. | ||
Playback 87: Don’t call me ‘sister’, you cheap gumshoe! | ||
Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 84: Instantly, a woman detached herself from the shadow of a shop doorway, and said, roughly, ‘Beat it, sister’. | ||
Last Exit to Brooklyn 99: OK sister, beat it. | ||
Garden of Sand (1981) 475: I wouldn’t stick my dick in your stinkin cunt, sister. I’d as lief stick it in the head of a cottonmouth moccasin. | ||
Family Arsenal 98: You’re wrong, sister. It’s easy. | ||
Back in the World 86: ‘It’s God’s country, sister, and that’s a fact’. | ‘The Sister’ in||
Chicken (2003) 98: ‘You’re a very old soul . . .’ concludes Rainbow. You said a mouthful there, sister. | ||
(con. 1962) Enchanters 127: Amen, sister. You’ve got the last word so far. |
3. a term of address between effeminate male homosexuals; thus self-referential as your sister; thus sisterhood n., homosexuality.
Secret Hist. of Clubs 285: They had cushion’d up the Belly of one of their Sodomitical Brethren, or rather Sisters, as they commonly call’d themselves, disguising him in a Womans Night-Gown. | ||
Miss Knight (1963) 50: Miss Knight was holding forth when an American brother in sisterhood came into the Berlin bitchery. | ||
Prison Community (1940) 335/2: sister, n. A male homosexual. | ||
Gay Girl’s Guide 2: This booklet has been procured for you through the kindness of your dear mother (or perhaps, sister). | et al.||
Homosexual in America 104: Best known among these words are fairy [...] Mary, sissy or sis (sometimes sister). | ||
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act II: Maybe that’s why you put Maggie and me in this room that was Jack Straw’s and Peter Ochello’s, in which that pair of old sisters slept in a double bed. | ||
City of Night 135: Well, honeys [...] your baby sister’s gonna be on her way now. | ||
Howard Street 48: Sister, how does one say ‘later’ to this dear boy? | ||
Queens’ Vernacular 181: sister one homosexual who is a close confidant to another [...] your sister (pron) oneself. | ||
House of Slammers 14: Sister, did you see the fish line today? | ||
Flame: a Life on the Game 108: He described us as ‘sisters’. That was the first time I’d heard the phrase. I didn’t know the camp lingo then. | ||
(ref. to 1944) Coming Out Under Fire 86: A gay man in jail was a sister in distress. | ||
Prison Sl. 60: Sister An affectionate term used among homosexuals. | ||
(con. 1950s) My Lives 104: A straight man was viewed as the highest good and another queen as [...] a pathetic ‘sister.’. | ||
Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 70: One’s sister was an intimate friend or fellow worker who was generally not a lover. | ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in||
Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] [used of a trans-sexual prisoner] ‘You’re bunking with a sister named Rene’. | ||
Man-Eating Typewriter 109: ‘I consider you a sister now. Tis bad fay to split a sibling’s arriss open’. |
4. used self-referentially by a woman.
West Broadway 16: ‘Why, I wouldn't take that trip for worlds!’ ‘Lots of folks take it for less,’ says Al. ‘But not sister!’ says I. |
5. (US black) a black woman; esp. as the sisters; also occas. attrib.
Anecdota Americana I 37: LIZA was large, and colored [...] Her sweetie smiled, and asked: ‘Sister, did you ever sit in the mud?’. | ||
Home to Harlem 80: Come outa that, sistah, and gimme mah cap. | ||
Walls Of Jericho 150: No lie. And they wasn’t near as easy to gaze on as that sister, either. | ||
If He Hollers 50: A dark brown woman [...] falling along in that knee-buckling, leaning forward, housemaid’s lope [...] she was really a comical sister. | ||
South Street 290: ‘I heard some of the sisters talking the other day about a speech you made’. | ||
Real Cool Killers (1969) 13: The smug sanctimoniousness of a saved sister. | ||
Die Nigger Die! 88: They arrested me and the sister. It was her first time going to jail. | ||
Third Ear n.p.: sister n. a black woman. | ||
(con. 1960s) Black Gangster (1991) 216: Tell the sister what the real deal is. | ||
Tales of the City (1984) 108: Five years ago you could have caught these turkeys [...] chowing down on chitlins and black-eyed peas with the Brothers and Sisters. | ||
Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: Like I consider you a sister. | ||
(con. 1964–73) Bloods (1985) 11: This riot [...] started over some white guys using a bunch of profanity in front of some sisters. | ||
(con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 56: Sounds like he’s got a few sisters singin’ backup, too. | ||
(con. 1986) Sweet Forever 4: Had some sisters before I was married, understand, but not every single sister. | ||
Observer Mag. 15 Aug. 8: Get hep, sista. | ||
Shame the Devil 271: So, you like the sisters, huh, Gus? You prefer ’em to your own kind, that’s what it is? | ||
Night Gardener 234: Gus is married to a sister, he tell you that? | ||
Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 27 Jan. 21: They are indeed the sistah souljahs, who celebrate their roots. | ||
This Is How You Lose Her 14: I shit you not; these sisters even have to wear hankies onn their heads. | ||
Killing Pool 197: I see plenty enough white girls there [...] but I can’t say there was ever that many sisters. | ||
The Force [ebook] ‘You tell the sistuh how many brothuhs you tuned up with your nightstick back in the day?’. | ||
Straight Dope [ebook] A hardworking mid-forties sister with a bad weave. |
6. (US) a man who is, or is considered to be effeminate or weak [abbrev. colloq. weak sister].
Goodbye to the Past 53: He’s one of the best men we’ve got, father. Hard-working and loyal.’ ‘Maybe. But I won’t have insubordination. A jolt in the army would do that four-eyed sister a lot of good. | ||
Quick Brown Fox 21: He was a poor drinker. Had no taste for it at all. But he didn’t want Joe to think he was a sister. |
7. (gay) the platonic gay friend of another gay man; similarly used by lesbians.
[ | Sporting Times 20 June 1/3: Ladies who preside at suburban tea-tables cordially endorse the action of their sisters ‘across the pond’ in demanding a retraction from the Rev. S. Goodman of the Men’s Church]. | ‘Libelled Ladies’|
Gay Girl’s Guide 15: sister: An intimate friend and confidant who is not a lover. | et al.||
City of Night 50: Soon a couple of her white ‘sisters’ swish by, two equally effeminate young men. | ||
America’s Homosexual Underground 30: His best pal or ‘sister,’ as chums are known in the ‘gay world.’. | ||
AS XLV:1/2 58: sister n Fellow homosexual. | ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in||
Gay (S)language 39: Sister—gay who shares intimate confidences, but does not have sex, with a gay pal. | ||
(con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 18: It must have been a sister who designed your uniforms. | ||
Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 sister platonic gay buddy of another gay. Term not used by ‘masculine’ gays today. | ||
Gayle 94/2: sister n. gay male friend (Don’t you badmouth my sister!). | ||
Fabulosa 298/1: sister a friend who may have also been also been a sexual partner at one point. |
8. (camp gay) in pl., the police, when working in pairs.
Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 230: If they travel in pairs [...] they are sisters (nuns), Bobsey twins, etc. |
9. (orig. US) a feminist or fellow woman.
[ | Annals of the Army of the Cumberland 638: A lady of Northern birth and education, but a bitter rebel, was reading to a mixed company [...] and embracing an old negress, calling her ‘sister,’ &c.]. | |
Thetford & Walton Times 7 Apr. 14/3: That will not warrant those of us who have not the inclination to cary a cigarette [...] denouncing every sister who is devoted to the ‘small smoke’. | ||
Cast the First Stone 19: Say you and your sister were in business together and you couldn’t get a trick to go with you [etc.]. | ||
Tales (1969) 40: I guess I better straighten this sister out. | ||
Harper’s Mag. June 84: I don’t pretend to understand all of my ‘sisters’. | ||
Foetal Attraction (1994) 218: It’s the least I can do for a sister. | ||
Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 23: Discussions and screenings from [...] cowgirls; and ‘radical black sisters’. | ||
A Study in Death 192: Whatever the right-on sisters might have thought about the women in the force. |
10. in pl., see sisters of the scabbard
In compounds
1. a homosexual couple.
Sex Variants. | ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry||
Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 41: sister act (n.): Sexual relations between two homosexuals of the same inclinations [...]. Has also been used to mean copulation between a homosexual male and a female. |
2. a homosexual man having sex with a heterosexual woman.
Sex Variants. | ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry||
see sense 1. | ||
Queens’ Vernacular 181: sister act [...] 2. coitus between a gay boy and a straight woman. |
see jimmy hix n. (1)
SE in slang uses
In derivatives
In compounds
anglice translation of banchoot n. (1)
Transmission 230: He was damaging the film industry, this sisterfucker, besmirching the image of India. The maniac. The pervert. |
(US campus) a term of address among female friends.
Campus Sl. Sept. | ||
Campus Sl. Apr. 8: sister girlfriend – very good friend. | ||
Sl. and Sociability 102: Other nouns of address used by college students are [...] cuz from cousin, sister girl. | ||
Portable Promised Land (ms.) 151: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Homeboy. Homegirl. B-Boy. B-Girl. Brotherman. Sistuhgirl. Soul brother. Soul sister. |
(US black) any woman working for a pimp other than his favourite or top woman under top adj.; also used of homosexual prostitutes.
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | ||
AS XXX:2 88: SISTER-IN-LAW, n. A prostitute. | ‘Narcotic Argot Along the Mexican Border’ in||
Current Sl. I:3 7/1: Sister-in-law, n. A procurer’s prostitute who has lost his affections. | ||
in Hellhole 92: She was a new sister-in-law which is what we girls call our men’s other women. | ||
Bounty of Texas (1990) 215: sister- in- law, n. – a prostitute working for a married man. | ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy||
Queens’ Vernacular 182: sister-in-law (fr pros sl = whore working for the same pimp) another homofilly living under the same stable. |
In phrases
1. the vagina.
Sl. and Its Analogues. | ||
Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: Little sister: measures of hotness. | ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in||
Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words. | ||
Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Vagina […] little sister. |
2. (US) menstruation.
Word 4 183: Female anthropomorphisms [...] are numerous: [...] little sister’s here, Aunt Jane, my country cousin, I expect a visit from my Aunt Susie, are some of the more typical phrases. |
see under road n.
prostitutes, as a group.
Nether Side of NY 142: The chief difference between the inmates [of a ‘parlor house"] and the street-walkers is that the former do not cruise the streets to entice strangers to their dens. If this is a comparative virtue it is the only one these women can boast, as they are fully as bestial in every other respect as their sisters of the pave. | ||
N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/5: The vast majority of the Christchurch sisters of the pavement would seem to be [...] debauched and dissipated women of the town. |
prostitutes, as a group.
Covent-Garden Weeded I i: What’s that a Sister of the Scabberd, brother of the Blade? | ||
‘The Sisters of the Scabards Holiday’ 5: Let Doctors Commons, and our foes doe what they may, / Wee Sisters of the scabard will keepe holiday. | ||
Ranters Last Sermon 2 Aug. 5: Dear Sisters, you may freely doo’t / As easy as to stirr a foot, / But if you cannot, tell me now, / And I myself will teach you how. | ||
Whores Rhetorick 84: I would here adorn my Rhetorick with some Rules, by which my young Pupil might learn to impose on my Sisters of the procuring Trade, but that I forsee an absolute impossibility in the attempt. |