ALT Talking about sex can sometimes be uncomfortable, but the words we use to do so are often etymologically fascinating. The word whore, for instance, comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ka- “like, desire”, but somewhere along the way in the Germanic branch this seems to have been used euphemistically to refer to a prostitute, as in Old English hore and Modern English whore. That root comes into Latin with more of the original sense as carus “dear”, which leads to such English words as cherish, caress, and charity. The root makes into English in a third way, through Sanskrit kama “love, desire”, which forms part of the title Kama Sutra, an ancient Hindu treatise about sex and love. The word sutra, by the way, means “series of aphorisms”, literally “string, thread” from Proto-Indo-European *syu- “to bind, sew”, the root that also lies behind sew, seam, and suture, and, it turns out, also hymen.