gigolo

{{short description|Male escort or social companion}}

{{other uses}}

{{more citations needed|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox occupation

| 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 ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|ɪ|g|ə|l|oʊ|,_|ˈ|ʒ|ɪ|g|-}} {{respell|JIG|ə|loh|,_|ZHIG|-}}) is a male escort, call boy or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship.{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gigolo|title=Definition of gigolo}} Merriam-Webster Dictionary

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.Otterman, Sharon, {{cite web|url=http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/swiss-gigolo-sentenced-to-six-years/|title='Swiss Gigolo' Sentenced to Six Years|date=2009-03-09}}, The Lede, March 9, 2009, News, The New York Times, February 14, 2013.Dahlkamp, Jürgen, Röbel, Sven, and Smoltczyk, Alexander, {{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/gigolo-trial-trial-to-begin-for-man-who-duped-germany-s-richest-woman-a-611715.html|title=Gigolo Trial: Trial to Begin for Man Who Duped Germany's Richest Woman|last1=Dahlkamp|first1=Jürgen|date=2009-03-06|newspaper=Spiegel Online|last2=Röbel|first2=Sven|last3=Smoltczyk|first3=Alexander}}, Spiegel Online International, accessed February 14, 2013.

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."{{cite web|url=http://www.wordreference.com/definition/gigolo|title=A man who is kept by a woman}}, Word Reference, accessed February 14, 2013.

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 {{ill|Pranzini Affair|it|Enrico Pranzini}},{{Cite journal |last=Maza |first=Sarah |date=September 2018 |title=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). |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/698789 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |language=en |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=707–708 |doi=10.1086/698789 |issn=0022-2801|url-access=subscription }} the term gigolo took on connotations of the exotic, foreign male whose company and affections could be purchased by well-to-do French women.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)