I always hated this term, now I know why. Below isan extract from an excellent site called wordorigins.com

Brothel
Brothel derives, through the Middle English broþel, from the Old English bréoðan, meaning ruined or degenerate. It is a variant of the word brethel, meaning a good-for-nothing, a wretch.
The original sense was of a worthless or degenerate person and dates to around 1393. A century later, the term was used to refer to a prostitute. The sense meaning an establishment that houses prostitutes comes from the form brothel-house. By 1593, the -house had been dropped and the clipped form survived.

Despite the similarity in appearance and meaning, the word is etymologically unrelated to bordel or bordello, which come from Portuguese and Italian respectively.

Also on there - are origins of the term "Yankee" with its dutch connotations (Little John) This ties in with the term "Wanker" which [Removed to avoid ofending sensibilities] The "Yankee" term was later adopted by colonial soldiers as a rallying call in a pride-reversal manouver. [Rmoved again :D] . All total conjecture, but interesting and Funny.

Mike,

This Yankee doodle wanker salutes your intellectual curiousity and your efforts to elevate the discourse on the board.

Cheers!

Its time they updated the terminology in the rld. 'Brothel' and 'Prostitute' are outdated and un-representative in 2005.

Where we live - the dustbin men who take the trash are now called 'Refuse Technicians'.
Professional working girls are therefore 'Sex Practitioners' - we just need to find a new term for their working environment - 'Sex Servicing Unit' perhaps?

Any other suggestions? How about an axxxtw competition? Winner gets half hour in kamer of his/her choice.

orgasm generating unit?
relief room?

Ladies of Negotiable Affection (Courtesy of terry Pratchet) was always a favourite of mine. Also Erotic Physiotherapist.