Another terrific guest post by Geoffrey! Very helpful – check it out.

The internet is a place of many acronyms.

So many, in fact, that my weekly X-Rated Trivia night (yes, it’s a thing) always includes at least one “dirty acronyms” question, many of which are so esoteric as to defeat the point of having an acronym at all.

After all, it doesn’t do much good to use an acronym if you then have to explain what it stands for. Would have been quicker to use the full phrase in the first place!

Happily, most diaper-related acronyms are relatively straightforward. Here are all the major ones, plus a few kink-and-fetish-related terms that may cross over into diapered culture from time to time:

Diaper-Specific Acronyms

These are the “big four” that you’ll need to know if you’re reading about adult diapers and the people that wear them. They basically denote different ways of and reasons for wearing diapers.

  • AB – Adult Baby. Refers to someone who not only wears diapers but also indulges in other trappings of infantilism. Babyish clothing, pacifiers, baby-talk, and other “regressive” props or behaviors are all within the realm of ABs. It’s not technically necessary to wear diapers to be an AB — they’re just a very common prop.

  • DL – Diaper Lover. Someone who wears diapers for personal plewp_e of any sort. Often used to deliberately indicate someone who is not an AB — that is, they wear diapers, but behave in an adult manner while doing so.

  • IN or IC – Incontinent. Someone who wears diapers out of an active need for protection. The implication is that without diapers they would be at risk of wetting/messing their pants involuntarily. Used to refer to any such need, regardless of the cause.

  • TB – Teen Baby. Someone who has an interest in wearing diapers for plewp_e, but is not of legal age. Generally used to separate “teen appropriate” content out from explicitly sexual content.

In addition to the acronyms, you may hear the term “ageplay.” Originally that was used to denote adult baby play, infantilism, and similar scenarios where an adult acts with the mannerisms of a younger age (technically, it could go the other way as well, as in a young woman pretending to be a “horny granny” or the like).

However, “ageplay” is now being used by some people to denote the depiction of characters who are under legal age, which is something that most people in the ABDL community strongly oppose. Be cautious when you see the term — its origins are in healthy adult sexuality, and it’s a good descriptive term for the activity, but it’s now being used as window-dressing for objectionable, underage content as well.

Fetish Culture Acronyms

These are not diaper-specific, but are likely to come up if you’re talking about sexual practices involving diapers:

  • D/S – Dominance and Submission. Implies a “power play” dynamic where one player is submissive to the other player. In diaper-related play, this often takes the form of an authority figure “punishing” someone by forcing them into diapers, either because of a wetting accident or to deliberately create one. Can also refer to mommy/daddy styles of “caretaker” role, if authority is a significant part of the relationship.

  • BDSM – Bondage and Discipline; Sadism and Masochism. A broad category that lumps together a whole array of fetishes and interests. Bondage and discipline focuses more on restraint and power play, while sadism and masochism are focused specifically on physical pain. Forced diaper wearing is a form of bondage (and frequently discipline as well), while a spanking is an example of mild S&M.

  • WS – Watersports. Sexual play involving urine. Wetting a diaper is one example, but there are many others.

  • SC – Scat. Often just written “scat,” as it’s short enough to not really need an acronym. Sexual play involving feces. Messing a diaper is a mild form of scat play; it can get much more extreme. Generally considered one of the most extreme fetishes.

  • ANR – Adult Nursing Relationship. The act of one partner breastfeeding from another, which often has a role in AB play. Obviously a complicated issue from a health standpoint. Not all ANRs involve diapering or ageplay.

There are, of course, hundreds more of these, and the deeper you go into one particular fetish or another the more specific they get, but these are probably the most common ones that crop up in the context of diaper use.

Sexuality and Personal Ad Acronyms

Useful for navigating the waters of personal ads, these are some common acronyms that denote gender, sexuality, and the types of partner that appeal to someone:

  • SSM/SSF – Single Straight Male/Single Straight Female. The bread and butter of Craigslist ads. The second letter varies to denote other sexualities: “SGM” for “Single Gay Man,” etc.

  • ISO – In Search Of. Usually followed by another acronym for a real alphabet soup of an ad: “SSM ISO SSF for ABDL,” and so on. An equivalent term is “LF” for “Looking For.”

  • LTR – Long Term Relationship. Used both to denote “currently in a” and to imply “looking for a.”

  • NSA – No Strings Attached. Implies a casual sexual relationship, with little or no interaction beyond the sex itself.

  • Cis – Cisgendered. Refers to someone whose sexual identity and biological sex match, i.e., a male born with a penis or a woman born with a vagina.

  • Trans* – A recent notation meant to encapsulate all the variations on non-cisgendered indentification. Includes transsexuals of all kinds (post-op, pre-op, non-op, etc.), gender queer individuals, etc.

As with fetishes, there are literally hundreds of these. Some are very easy to decipher, like the variations on SSM and SFM, while others will be references to very small and specific subcultures.

When in doubt, you can always Google it — but hopefully this post has covered most of the terms you’ll see in your diapered (or undiapered) lives!