do-S - Meaning in Japanese + do-M |ドS,ドM

Before anything else, let's talk about S and M, or, rather,エス andエム, the katakanization of those letters.

In Japanese, the letter "S," esu エス, normally means "sadist," while "M," emu エム, means "masochist." I repeat: it's sadist and masochist, not sadism and masochism. That's because when one of these letters is used it's often talking about the preferences of a person, not the concept itself. For example:

• watashi wa esu desu 私はSです
  I'm an S.
  I'm a sadist.
• watashi wa emu desu 私はMです
  I'm an M.
  I'm a masochist.

Generally speaking, it works like the above. If you say you're "an S," you're saying you're "a sadist." If you say you're "an M," you're saying you're "a masochist."

Letters be Letters

Note, however, that that's not not necessarily true. There are no definite and indefinite articles in the Japanese language , no words for "a," "an," and "the." So "I'm an S,""I'm the S" and "I'm S" are all the same phrase in Japanese. For example:

• watashi wa eru desu 私はLです
  I'm L.

Above we have a phrase that could say "I'm L," as in "my name is L," or it could be everyone is being assigned a letter of the alphabet and mine was the letter L. You are letter J? "I'm L." That sort of ambiguity exists.

Not Affiliated With BDSM

As far as I'm aware, English-speakers who are into BDSM don't go around calling themselves letters. Nobody says "I'm an S" in "I'm an M" in English, unless they watch too much anime. Normally you'd say "I'm a sadist" or "I'm a masochist." Or, not exactly, but similar: "I'm a dominant" or "I'm a submissive." And those can indeed be abbreviated: "I'm a dom" and "I'm a sub."

On top of that, saying you're an S or an M in Japanese, or getting called that, doesn't necessarily have BDSM connotations. It means, literally, just sadist and masochist.

That is to say that in Japanese these words are often used to talk about the personality of the characters (and people) and not about their sexual preferences. Consequently, they get used in Japanese more than they get used in English.

A character can get called sadist, for example, for being too bossy, specially if they're a manager or teacher. And they can get called masochist for staying friends with someone who is bossy. And, just like in English, if you keep doing something that sounds like suffering and people would rather not do, like grinding a character is an ineffective way in an MMORPG, you may get called a masochist for that.

Conversely, sometimes the S and M characters do have something to do with BDSM. For example, S characters often find themselves using a whip as a weapon. Because that's the weapon of choice of all sadists, apparently. On the other hand, M characters frequently and mysteriously find themselves in bound by rope, specially in gag mang... comedy manga.

Do-S ドS

Alright, so now we know that S alone means "sadist," and that can be used in a number of ways in Japanese, as one would expected. But then what does do-S ドS means? What does do of do-S do?

do-S written in Japanese is どS, ドS, or 弩S, depending on whether you want to write it with hiragana, katakana or kanji.

Basically, the do ド prefix means "very" or "super" or some emphatic adjective like that. It can be three different ways, by the way, sowritten in Japanese is どS, ドS, or 弩S, depending on whether you want to write it withor

It can also be written as do-esu ドエス if you use katakana instead of the S.

So do-S means "super sadist" if you were to simply translate it. But you could say it means "fucking sadist" or "damn sadist" if you want to use an expletive instead. It's not that do ド is a bad word, it just adds emphasis, but sometimes in English emphasis is better added with an expletive.

Situations

Often, when someone calls someone a do-S, they are doing one of the following:

1. Complaining that guy keeps bossing everyone around.
   That "damn sadist" won't let me take the day off!
2. Warning that someone is troublesome.
   Stay away from him, he's a "fucking sadist."

Then there's the time a character calls themselves do-S. Then it'd be like they saying "I'm a fucking sadist."

Now, I'm pretty sure you can imagine characters saying those phrases. But sometimes it just doesn't suit, does it? Sometimes "super sadist" makes more sense in English than an expletive. So the translation of do ド varies.

Also, saying "super sadist" often involves an exaggeration of some sort. Either you're exaggerating how much of a sadist the person is, or the author has exaggerated how sadistic the character is. Characters which are designed as do-S don't act like normal people, they act like caricatures. They speak in verbal abuse. Call people "dog" or "gorilla.". They look down at people taller than them. It's weird.

Do-M ドM

The word do-M means "super masochist" or "damn masochist" or "fucking masochist," pretty much the same way as do-S works.

Likewise, do-M can be written in three different ways: どM, ドM or 弩M. And do-emu ドエム if you replace the M with katakana.

(ironically, if you remove the hyphen from the romaji you turn do-M into doM, or dom, which'd be the abbreviation of dominant, which is practically the antonym of masochist.)

Like do-S characters, do-M characters are often exaggerated, the kind you'd find in a comedy manga. They'll go around begging people to tie them up and other stuff like that, plus tons of blushing over verbal and physical abuse every single time. In worst cases, a do-M character in a fantasy world will end up fantasizing about getting attacked by monsters. That sounds like suicide, but some consider it a joke.

Do-M Hoihoi ドMホイホイ

The term Do-M Hoihoi ドMホイホイ is mostly a tag found on a number of websites used to tag drawings, stories, videos, etc. that appeal the "super masochists." It's a kind of weird tag because it doesn't describe the fictional content, it advertises the post to real masochist users.

The word hoihoi ホイホイ would mean to indulge something unguarded. That is, to accept something from someone or do something for someone without reservations. In this case, that tag means it's something a do-M would gladly accept without further thought.

Vocabulary

For reference, some related terms:

• sadhisuto サディスト
  Sadist..
• sadhizumu サディズム
  Sadism.
• sado サド
  (either of the above)

• mazohisuto マゾヒスト
  Masochist.
• mazohizumu マゾヒズム
  Masochism.
• mazo マゾ
  (either of the above)

Pretty much all sadist/masochist words can be used as na adjectives and sometimes just glued together to other words:

• do-S onna ドS女
  do-S na onna ドSな女
  Sadistic woman.
• do-M otoko ドM男
  do-M na otoko ドMな男
  Masochistic man.

The missing B/D, plus native Japanese counterparts:

• bondeeji ボンデージ
  Bondage. (BDSM lingo only)
  (in English, "bondage" also means to be owned as slave by someone, for example, "bondage in Egypt" may refer to the slaves who built the pyramids. This meaning isn't shared by the Japanese katakanization)
• kousoku 拘束
  sokubaku 束縛
  Restraints. (used to bind people)
• shibari 縛り
  The "tying up" of something. (from the verb shibaru 縛る, "to tie up.")

• dhishipurin ディシプリン
  Discipline. (again, BDSM lingo)
• fukujuu 服従
  Submission. Obedience.
• shihai 支配
  Domination. Rule. Control.

The missing B/D, plus native Japanese counterparts:

And the staple vocabulary known by practically every S/M character ever in manga: