Genesis 38:21

Then he asked the men of that place,.... Or "of her place" d, of the woman's place, supposing that she dwelt somewhere thereabout:

saying, where [is] the harlot that [was] openly by the wayside? that sat there very publicly some little time ago: the word for "harlot" e comes from another, which signifies to sanctify or separate to holy uses; and harlots were so called, either by an antiphrasis, by way of contradiction, being unholy; or because, as Jarchi observes, they were separated and destined to whoredom; or because they were such as were devoted to Venus, and the worshippers of her, and prostitutes in her temple, and in the temples of other Heathen deities; but it is questionable whether such practices as yet were used;

and they said, there was no harlot in this [place]; they had not known any harlot to frequent that place lately, and Tamar sat there so small a time as not to have been observed by them.

d אנשי מקמה "viros loci ejus, scil mulieris", Piscator, Schimdt. e הקדשה