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.
