doxy

The antibiotic doxycycline is reasonably common. Could it be made from ... you know?

It's in Shakespeare. That's where I found it first, I think. Either that or just in the script for the Renaissance Faire I worked at.

Almost all of the online dictionaries give the 'mistress'-definition for this word; suggested synonyms include concubine, courtesan, odalisque, paramour, chippy, floozy, girl friend, grisette, inamorata,
kept mistress, kept woman, lover, mistress, nymph, nymphet, paramour, playmate, tart, unofficial wife, wanton .

Yet the word heterodoxy suggests there may be more to it than that. And, sure enough, dictionary.com leads with this definition:

noun, plural dox·ies.
1. opinion; doctrine.
2. religious views.

Just had to say...Firefly rocks. Watch it, those of you who haven't done so already!

"Doxy training" I think the term was. Of course I had to figure that out.

I came across the word first in Heinlein's book Friday.

I, too, learned this word from Firefly. I'm not sure about WordNet's definition, though; I always assumed it just meant prostitute.

Upstairs bounded the psychologist,
rowed with his doxy, rushed down, said 'damn, DAMN!'...

- Peter Reading, Ménage à Trois, from The Prison Cell & Barrel Mystery, 1976

Like many great words, brought to my attention through the fine writing of Mr. Whedon. "I'll not be anyone's doxy," insists Saffron, in the Firefly episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds".