What is meant by the saying: A kept woman?

[Jules76126]

well no one really uses the term anymore nowadays. It was a term that orginated back in like the 1600s. Basically like so many have said before it refers to a mistress who has everything paid for by her boyfriend or lover. I first remember hearing the term for the first time last year in my English class. It was in a book I was reading and no body in the class knew what it meant. So my teachers went on this wheole rant about it and they even enacted a poem about a kept woman and her lover. All too funny. This thead has sure brought back memories.

 

[Becky2005]

I thought it meant a mistress.

Although my DH will say it to me occassionally since I'm a SAHM, so occasionally he will tease me about being a "kept woman" when we are talking finances, etc...