A dominatrix or
mistress is a
woman who takes the dominant role in bondage and discipline,
domination and submission or sado-masochistic sexual practices,
which are commonly abbreviated as BDSM. The male equivalent is
master. A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix
is "
Mistress" or "Ma'am". Note that a dominatrix
does not necessarily dominate a male partner; a dominatrix may well
have a female submissive.
The term domme is a coined pseudo-French female variation of the
slang dom (short for dominant). There is confusion on its
pronunciation, with some pronouncing it identically to dom and some
pronouncing the final e as a second syllable, e.g. saying dom-MAY
or DOM-may.
It appears that more BDSM authorities prefer the first
pronunciation (identical to dom), by analogy to one-syllable
French-derived words like femme or blonde.
