Cocotte (prostitute)
Historical term for high class prostitutes in France / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about French prostitutes. For other uses, see Cocotte (disambiguation).
Cocottes (or coquettes) were high class prostitutes (courtesans) in France during the Second Empire and the Belle Époque.[1] They were also known as demimondaines and grandes horizontales.[2] Cocotte was originally a term of endearment for small children, but was used as a term for elegant prostitutes from the 1860s.[3] The term was also used in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany from the turn of the 20th century (Kokotte).[4]