Gag

What is a gag?

Gag is the English word for what goes in or over a mouth to make speech impossible. In Dutch it is called a knevel, and that word is older than the mouth meaning. A knevel was first a short, thick wooden peg you used to pull a rope or a strap tight. From that peg comes the verb knevelen, which means to tie up.

Where the word knevel comes from

From the world of rope, not the bedroom. The Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands describes the noun as a “wooden peg for fastening or joining one thing to another” and also as a “rope or strap to tie someone up”, both recorded by Kiliaan in 1599. The verb is older still. Cnevelen, ‘to bind, to tie up’, already appears in 1408. According to De Vries the root word simply means ‘a short thick stick’, and the same stick sits in the German Knebel and the Danish knevle.

The moustache came in on the side. Around 1560 knevel turns up meaning ‘moustache’, shortened from knevelbaard, where the name points to the thick tip of the moustache. So if you meet a man with a heavy knevel in an old Dutch book, you are reading about facial hair.

From tying up to extortion

The third branch of the word lives in criminal law. By 1573 knevelen was already recorded meaning ‘to plunder, to mutiny, to extort’, and that idea stuck. Article 366 of the Dutch Criminal Code still punishes the official who demands or accepts what he knows is not owed, “as guilty of knevelarij” (extortion in office), up to six years. So in Dutch, to knevel someone has never only meant shutting a mouth.

Why the word sticks in BDSM

Because it describes the whole situation, not a single object. In plain Dutch, saying someone is gekneveld says they are both tied up and unable to use their mouth, and that combination is exactly what this kind of play is about. The English word gag only covers the thing in the mouth.

In Dutch the word sounds harsh, because it comes from crime reports and from criminal law. If that sits badly with you, just use mouth gag.

What does need to be arranged

A signal that works without your voice. In Sexual Abuse, Dunkley and Brotto describe how, in scenes where a spoken safeword is not possible, gestures take over that role. “Silent safewords” like clapping your hands or snapping your fingers are meant for exactly the case where someone is gagged. So do not tie the hands in a way that also makes that gesture impossible, and do not put an object in them that can be dropped.

Where this fits on this site

Tying up is something I enjoy, light or firm, with real hemp. Everything that gets talked through before the first wrap goes on, you can read on the page about the BDSM date.

Sources

• Knevel. Etymologiebank (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal), including M. Philippa et al., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (2003–2009), J. de Vries, Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek (1971) and P.A.F. van Veen & N. van der Sijs (1997). Provides cnevelen ‘to bind, to tie up’ in 1408, knevelen ‘to plunder, to mutiny, to extort’ in 1573 and ‘to tie or shackle the hands’ from Kiliaan in 1599, the noun knevel as “a wooden peg for fastening or joining one thing to another” and “a rope or strap to tie someone up” (1599), the original meaning ‘a short thick stick’, the related forms Knebel (German) and knevle (Danish), and the meaning ‘moustache’ from around 1560 as a shortening of knevelbaard.
• Wetboek van Strafrecht, article 366. Wetten.overheid.nl, text in force. Provides the criminalization of knevelarij. The official who, in the exercise of his office, demands, receives or withholds what he knows is not owed is punished with imprisonment of up to six years or a fifth-category fine.
• The Role of Consent in the Context of BDSM. Cara R. Dunkley & Lori A. Brotto, Sexual Abuse 32(6), 657–678, 2020. Provides the finding that in scenes where a verbal safeword is not possible, gestures take over that function, and the “silent safewords” like clapping the hands or snapping the fingers, which serve to solve the communication problem when one of the participants is gagged.

Related terms

• Bondage. What the verb knevelen is really about. Tying up.
• Ballgag. The best-known filling type, with a ball and a strap.
• Check-in. The system the stop gesture comes from, the one that replaces your voice the moment a gag is in.
• Jaw clamp. The opposite case, where the mouth is held open instead.
• Mouth gag. The compound with mond in front of it, and what people actually reach for.
• Mouth spreader. The opposite object under its own name, which also covers the ringgag and the spidergag.
• Speech ban. The same silence without an object. Forbidden instead of impossible.