Only recently I realised the metaphor behind hooked: If you’re on the hook, you’re addicted. OK wow yay – and ehm yes, quite straightforward, actually.
So I wondered if there are any other metaphors with hooks. And obviously there’s hooker ‚prostitute’—Were they thought to lure their clients in…? Well, maybe.
There’s a theory that attributes the development of this meaning of hooker to a US Civil War general called Hooker. It does not withstand scrutiny, but he might have popularised the word. Other theories suggest place names (Hooker Street or the likes) had something to do with it.
It strikes me that all of the explanations, „one who hooks“ as well as „Hook Street“/“General Hooker“, do the trick of saying sex work without saying it (which seems to be quite common for language to do with sex). If based on a proper name, the occupation is completely disguised. Taken as a metaphor, it is hidden for the uninitiated, but holds a pun for those who know.
If I had to settle for one explanation, I’d go with the latter. It ticks off some boxes: We like to allude to sex in metaphoric terms; and it ascribes a big part of the responsability not to the client/man but the prostitute/woman—which is in line with a popular view of the roles in intiating a sexual encounter.