Herrin

What does Herrin mean?

Herrin (Dutch: meesteres) is the German word for a dominant woman within BDSM, and in the German-speaking scene the ordinary form of address for her. Herrin is the feminine form of Herr, the same word as the Dutch heer. Dutch never made that feminine form.

Why German had to invent this word

Because there was a gap where Latin had none. The Deutsches Wörterbuch of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm opens the entry herrin with one word: domina. Then comes the statement that carries the whole page. In Middle High German herrin did not exist; there one said vrouwe. Before the sixteenth century the word cannot be pointed to anywhere, and according to Grimm it owes its existence only to the need to find a transparent German translation for the Latin domina, the French dame and the Italian donna. The earliest source the dictionary gives is Dasypodius: “dominus ein herr, … domina ein herrin”.

Herrin and Domina are therefore not two traditions that happened to meet. One word was made to translate the other.

The masculine side is much older. According to the etymological dictionary of Wolfgang Pfeifer, Herr goes back to Old High German hēriro, written down as early as the eighth century, and grammatically that is a comparative: “the older one, the worthier one”. That same word became Middle Dutch hēre and modern Dutch heer. Pfeifer dates the feminine Herrin to the sixteenth century, with the meaning “Gebieterin über Untergebene”. Dutch stayed with heer and never built a feminine form onto it; it has meesteres, from a very different stem.

Why you run into this word

Usually because you read it somewhere and not because you say it yourself. The German-language encyclopedia writes at femdom that the forms of address are meant to underline the power difference, and names Herrin first, alongside Mistress and Lady, against Sklave, Diener or Sub on the other side. It adds one more thing that Dutch does not have in the same way: the Siezen, meaning addressing the leading party with “Sie”, and speaking about her in the third person.

Germany is close by, the studios advertise in German and so does the porn. Anyone who crosses the border or reads a German-language profile sees Herrin sooner than Meesteres. That is the whole difference between the two words: not the role, but the language in which you run into her.

Where this fits on my site

With me the roles are exactly the other way around, and that is more honest to say straight away than to explain afterward. I’m Victor and I play the leading side, so you won’t find a Herrin here. If you discover while reading that you’d rather be led than lead, the page about the BDSM date sets out how that conversation begins.

Sources

• herrin. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, entry consulted via the DWDS on 10 August 2026. The historical dictionary of German and so the source of record for when this word arose. Supplies the gloss “domina”, the finding that herrin was unknown in Middle High German and was represented by vrouwe, that the word cannot be attested before the sixteenth century, the source in Dasypodius (“dominus ein herr, … domina ein herrin”), and the judgment that the word owes its existence only to the need to find an etymologically transparent German translation for Latin domina, French dame and Italian donna.
• Herrin. Wolfgang Pfeifer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, via the Digitale Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Supplies that Herr goes back to Old High German hēriro, hērōro from the eighth century, that this form is grammatically a comparative of hēr “alt, ehrwürdig”, that Middle Dutch hēre and Dutch heer are the same form, and that Herrin as “Gebieterin über Untergebene”, also “Inhaberin feudaler Besitzungen”, is dated to the sixteenth century.
• Femdom. Wikipedia (German). Supplies that in this relationship forms of address are used that are meant to underline the power difference between top and bottom, with Herrin, Mistress and Lady on one side and Sklave, Diener or Sub on the other, and that alongside this the Siezen of the top and the use of the third person singular are widespread.

Related terms

Herrin is the German word for what on this site is under Domina, and that page has the Latin side of the same story.

• Domina. The word German wanted to translate with Herrin, with the Roman meaning and the commercial charge in Germany.
• Meesteres. The Dutch word, built on meester instead of on heer.
• Mistress. The English word, which stands beside Herrin in the same German ads.
• Domme. The loose spelling the German scene knows as Domse.
• Femdom. The relationship this form of address belongs in.
• Meester. The masculine side in Dutch, where German says Herr.