Language
The Lexicon
The Lexicon preserves the language of the Lifestyle — its words, concepts and traditions. It records meaning; it never prescribes practice. Where usage varies between Houses or lineages, each is set down with equal respect.
Category
Terminology
Entries are listed alphabetically. Categories classify — they never determine order.
Bare Feet
The presentation of the feet unshod, often significant within ritual or ceremony.
BDSM
An umbrella acronym covering bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism.
BTB
Abbreviation for Book Gor, or By The Books.
By The Books
A phrase used within Gorean communities to describe practice closely modelled on the novels.
Companion Animal
An animal persona focused on companionship, closeness and shared daily life rather than working tasks.
Counter-Earth
The fictional planet of the Gorean novels, imagined as orbiting opposite Earth.
Eyes
The face's principal instrument of expression, often the focus of etiquette and worship within Body Worship traditions.
Female Authority
The exercise of leadership and decision-making by a woman within a consensually established dynamic or household.
Female Dominance
Tradition of consensual authority in which a woman holds the leadership role within a negotiated dynamic or relationship.
Female Leadership
Broad concept describing a woman occupying the guiding role within a relationship, household or community setting.
Female Supremacy
Community term describing an ideological framing in which female authority is treated as the organising principle of a relationship or philosophy.
FemDom
Common shorthand for Female Dominance used across contemporary Lifestyle communities.
Feral
Primal-tradition descriptor for a mode of play or state characterised by particularly wild, unrestrained embodiment.
Fetish
A strong, specific erotic focus on an object, material, body part or practice.
FLR
Standard abbreviation for Female-Led Relationship used across contemporary Lifestyle communities.
Gor
The fictional world of John Norman's novels, and the umbrella name for the communities inspired by them.
Gorean
A person, tradition or practice associated with Gor or with communities inspired by the Gorean novels.
Hands
The hands considered as an object of etiquette, worship and ritual meaning within Lifestyle traditions.
Human Animal
A general term for a person expressing an animal persona within consensual practice.
Instinct
The immediate embodied responses drawn upon in Primal and instinctive modes of play.
Kink
A general term for consensual sexual or intimate practices outside the conventional mainstream.
Lesbian Dominance
Tradition of consensual authority practiced within relationships or dynamics between women.
LezDom
Common shorthand for Lesbian Dominance within contemporary Lifestyle communities.
Lifestyle
A term used within the community for lived, ongoing practice of BDSM, Leather, D/s or M/s beyond occasional scenes.
Matriarchy
In Lifestyle usage, a household or relationship structure in which a woman occupies the recognised leadership role.
Matrifocal Dynamic
A relationship arrangement in which the woman is the central organising figure of household life and decision-making.
Natural Response
The spontaneous embodied reactions that arise during instinctive or primal play.
Nawa
A Japanese word for rope, used across historical and contemporary rope traditions.
Posture
The manner in which the body is held, carrying significant meaning within service, protocol and worship.
Presence
The quality of self one brings to a room, a scene or a dynamic, treated as significant across many Lifestyle traditions.
Primal
General term used across Lifestyle communities to describe instinctive, embodied or animalistic modes of play, identity or dynamic.
Tame
Primal-tradition descriptor for a mode of play or state marked by settled, contained embodiment.
Territory
Space claimed, defended or shared by a pack, dynamic or dominant figure within primal contexts.
Vanilla
A neutral term for sexual or relational practice outside BDSM, Leather or kink.
Woman-Led Household
Household in which a woman holds the recognised leadership role by mutual consent.
Working Animal
An animal persona whose defining register is task, labour, performance or service.