At its heart, this inquiry is concerned with a modern day legal question. I apologize if that makes it inappropriate for this forum. I'll lead with the legal problem to provide context, then get to the question.

I'm a public defender in the Tidewater region of Virginia. I have a client who was caught running an unlicensed strip club out of his home. The commonwealth has charged him with a violation of § 18.2-347: Keeping, residing in, or frequenting a bawdy place. The relevant text of the statute follows:

"It is unlawful for any person to keep any bawdy place, or to reside in or at or visit for immoral purposes any such bawdy place....As used in this Code, "bawdy place" means any place within or outside any building or structure that is used or is to be used for lewdness, assignation, or prostitution."

Essentially, I want to argue that "lewdness, assignation, or prostitution" all refer to exchanges of sex for money, which stripping does not rise to. I have some support for this from the Virginia Supreme Court, which has stated that the purpose of the statute is to curtail prostitution and accompanying venereal diseases. I do, however, run into a problem wherein "lewd" is elsewhere defined as being synonymous with lascivious for the purposes of § 18.2-347.1 (Child Pornography) with regard to "lewd nudity." That doesn't sink my argument because a) the same word can have different meanings in different statutes, and b) I would argue either way that stripping isn't "lascivious" in the strictest sense. But you don't have to worry about that.

My question is whether anyone can point me in direction of anything that would support the argument that, historically, terms like "lewdness" or "lewd women" have almost always referred to prostitution. Even better if this is in the context of Virginia, but any evidence of traditional usage would be helpful. My instinct is that this is a case of referring to an undesirable element in society obliquely, but my instincts don't go far in a court of law. Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sometimes when I search for things I'm disgusted by the plagiaristic nature of the internet. I was trying to research the advent of written history in China and I keep coming across this exact wording:

"An old missionary student of China once remarked that Chinese history is 'remote, monotonous, obscure, and-worst of all-there is too much of it.'"

I have found this precise wording, including the "and old missionary student" bit on dozens of websites, but none have an actual attribution for it. It would seem people have been copy/pasting this particular line across multiple sites with reckless abandon. I encourage folks to try a search for it and see just how ubiquitous the phrasing is.

Can someone point me to an actual source for this quote?

Did the specialisation that came with the first agricultural revolution lead to the bronze age?

The stone age lasted 2 million years, but as soon as they started creating larger societies which were possible due to the first agricultural revolution, within 'only' 5000 years the bronze age has alluded.

I'm oversimplifying things, but is there some kind of link here?

Who made corsets outside Europe/US in the colonial times? As in, would the British settled in someplace like India have imported corsets from Britain, employed local tailors/household staff who were trained in corset-making, or done something else?

When did the terms like "Frankish Empire" and "Carolingian Empire" first appear in historiography?

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I was in a discussion about the Holy Roman Empire and Charlemagne. The gentleman I was arguing with said that the Holy Roman Empire didn't exist during Charlemagne's time "only the Frankish empire"

Which I pointed out that Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans and it was just referred to as "the Empire" until Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II used the term "Holy Roman Empire" as a mirror to the Holy Roman Church and that the "Frankish Empire" isn't a historic term. But I don't know when it first appears, my guess is the 19th century, it's always the 19th century.

So like Hieronymus Wolf making up the term Byzantine Empire 100 years after the fall of Constantinople to cement the western position that the greeks weren't the Romans, What's the origins of "Frankish empire or Carolingian Empire" and is it used to separate Charlemagne or Karl de grosse from the later super german Holy Roman Empire and keep him in the more French focused historiography?

In light of Dollar Tree announcing they are raising prices above $1... in what year did five and dime stores start to raise their prices above ten cents?

Was iron really plentiful enough in medieval Europe for the average person to use a cauldron instead of pottery like most other places?

Who was the first man to defecate on the moon? I was reading this article in Vox about the human waste that the Apollo astronauts left on the Moon, and how astronaut Charlie Duke was unable to personally recall whether or not he had had a bowel movement during the few days he spent there. It occurred to me that at the fine-grained level NASA were monitoring the astronauts' bodily functions, the dubious honor of being the first human to do a #2 whilst on another celestial object ought to be a matter of public record. Is the identity of this person able to be definitively established?

How big was the temple which the bible claims Jesus threw moneychangers out of, and were there guards at such a place?

So I was looking at images of some of the rod and slat armors you'd find among the Tlingit and some of the other native peoples of the Pacific Northwest and I couldn't help but notice that it's basically wooden lamellar armor, except with the key difference being that the lamellae are (besides being wood rather than metal) vertical strips rather than horizontal bands. I'm wondering then two basic things;

1. What is the reason for this? Is it due to wood breaking easier if it was curved or something or is there some other reason why?

2. What is the practical effect of this? If one was to wear a suit of lamellar armor and a suit of Tlingit slat armor with both being made of the same amount and type of wood, the same backing, and so on and so forth with all else being equal besides one having vertical strips of wood and the other horizontal bands of it, what would be the performance differences? I sort of get the vague feeling that the slat armor might be more protective a bit, but also far more restrictive, but I'm not sure I can articulate why I get that feeling.

But yeah. Given that every Old World culture I am aware of that used similar armor had the horizontal bands for this type of armor, I imagine there has to be a reason for it. Because surely at some point some armorer, otherwise, would have experimented with vertical bands and if there was no meaningful difference, then surely one would expect to see surviving examples and artistic depictions of both vertical and horizontal lamellar.

When did it become socially acceptable to say “fuck”?

How frequent was executing deserters during the US civil war?

How did the movie Deliverance affect banjo sales? Like did 'Dueling Banjos' inspire more banjo playing or was it associated with the more 'seamier' parts of the movie?

How did people in the late 19th and early 20th century travel so freely between countries? Many people moved from country to country for a short amount of time (especially in Europe). You had philosophers and scientists and writers etc just going somewhere for a few months/years. What kind of visas would they have had? Was there a concept of a work visa? Did they even need a visa at all?

How accurate is the dancing in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof? With respect to the culture it is trying to portray. Specifically the bottle dance at the wedding and the bar scene.

What happened to low ranking members who were part of the Holocaust?

I think we all know what happened to high ranking members who are part of the Holocaust. Generals, commanders of camps have been tried and some executed for their crimes. But what about the rank and file, such as guards, train engineers who transport prisoners to the camps, and others in administrative roles? Were they prosecuted? Did it depend on who directly killed the prisoners or they have a hand in it, and to what extent is a hand in the killing?

What are the best books to read about non-western Bronze age and Iron Age civilizations?

Did spouses often see each other naked in the 18tj century? A book called "female husbands" by Jen Manion shows that several women claimed to have never figured out their husbands' biological sex, and courts bought it. Did they just have sex partly clothed back then?

I find these uniform pictures taken out of a French book or books everywhere with no credit, and I am very interested in finding it.

A Few Images

Don't know any more about them, just that they are a book, somewhere

Would it be inappropriate to ask here for a brief summary of the conclusion of an article by someone either familiar with it or with the means to access it?

Asking because it's been bugging me for years, now.

In various Japanese media, ranging from anime to games and the like, I've seen an upside-down 'T'-shaped (although thicker, similar to 凸) symbol used for military formations. While I can at least find that actual Japanese military maps before the broad adoption of NATO symbology also use this, I haven't found any origin for the symbol itself or how old it is and the like, so I was curious if there's anything on that or not? I'd tried looking a bit myself, but there's only so much 'japanese military symbology' and 'T-shaped symbol (military)' or the like can get me off google without ending up wildly off-topic.

I'm looking for a book that provides a general overview of human history. The two main candidates I can find are "A People's History of the World" by Chris Harman and "The New Penguin History of The World" by J.M. Roberts. Which of these books should I read, or is there a better option out there?

Who were the original nineteen founding members of Liberal International?

What is the Head-to-Head Win-Loss Record in Wars Between England and France?
There is this whole stereotype about France surrendering all the time, but I think they won more often than they lost.
It got me to thinking about who has the more wins between them and England in history.

Best source for concise and authoritative history of US intervention in Latin America?

Who are the 12 paladins of charlemagne? theres many different versions so id prefer learning about the more popular ones.

What would the U.S. have done if the atomic bombs dropped on Japan failed to detonate?

There was an answer on here, I believe, about the percentage of the German population involved in the Holocaust, one way or the other, that said it was around 20%. Can anyone find it? My searching is failing me.

Was there a time when a donkey or other animal was named Pope?

Which countries were superpowers of its time before USA and USSR? Besides British Empire and Ancient Rome

According to Wikipedia, 32nd New York Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War was also called the 1st California Volunteers. I'm trying to figure out why it was associated with California at all. Was it recruited from Californians who happened to be in New York? Was the commanding officer Californian? There were other regiments recruited in Pennsylvania by a California senator, but I can't find anything about the 32nd New York that says why that one was named after a state on the opposite end of the continent.

Did the waffen ss have better gear compared to normal infantry units.If so can what are a couple of examples

What was the fastest vehicle during the 19th century?

It can be any vehicle even if it wasn't available for everyone

How similar were Arabic and old Ethiopic?

What were the loudest voices against the premiering of The Birth of a Nation?

What is the name for the time period in the late 19th-early 20th century in Europe? I'm trying to put a name to the time period that spanned the end of the Victorian era until the First World War. Imagine handlebar moustaches, bellhops with polished buttons, winter sleigh rides, long distance train travel is the pinnacle of luxury...etc.

What did Chinese people call Vietnam around 1850s and earlier? Was it Annam or Dai nam?

How was Vietnam referred to at that time in the US?

How many places did Ethan Allen travel and where?

Wondering what cultures use to eat testicles to increase fertility? Vaguely recall talking about it in high school

I'm trying to learn more about ancient and medieval history as opposed to post enlightenment/renaissance history that I have focused on up until this point. What are some good authors or books that are both informative and engaging about the ancient or medieval world?

I'm wondering how historically accurate the armor is in this shot (c. 1386 France)? It's from the upcoming film adaptation of Eric Jager's The Last Duel. (GIF of one of the original clips here.)

When did the Spanish monarchs first add "Spain" to their titles (as opposed to just Castille and Aragon and so on)?