Glossary
Rimming
A loanword that never made the dictionary, yet made it into the RIVM's disease-control guidelines.
What is rimming?
Rimming is oral stimulation of the anus: licking, kissing, running the tongue along the rim. It is also called a rimjob, and the medical term is anilingus. In Dutch, the loanword rimmen is the word people actually use and type. The act itself is described in more detail on rimjob.
| Also known as | rimjob, rimming |
| Medical term | anilingus |
| In the Dutch dictionary | no, the Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek has no entry for rimmen |
| In a RIVM guideline | yes, literally, under shigellosis |
| Core risk | fecal-oral transmission, not injury |
A word without a dictionary entry
Look up rimmen in the Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek of the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal and you get exactly one line back: this article isn’t in it. No entry, no meaning, no citation.
And yet it is not a fringe word. It does appear, in so many words, in the RIVM’s LCI guideline on shigellosis, where the risk factors list “(in)direct oral-anal contact (such as rimming).” A disease-control guideline has to be understood by the people it is about, so the government writes down the word that gets used in practice while the lexicography is still waiting.
I find that telling. It is the exact reverse of most kink words: those get written down first and done afterward.
Why that guideline exists
Shigella spreads fecal-orally, and the incubation is short: usually one to three days, sometimes eight. The guideline estimates that up to 80 percent of all infections pass from person to person. Sexual transmission runs through contact with stool, and with rimming that is the case by definition.
What helps is more limited than people hope. Caruso and colleagues, in Sexually Transmitted Diseases, lay out the recommended measures: condoms and other barriers such as dental dams, washing the genitals and anus before sex, and no sex while you are ill. In the same breath they write honestly that more research is needed into which of those measures actually works.
That is where things stand. No cause for panic, and no blanket reassurance either. Just a reason to talk about it rather than quietly assume a shower takes care of it.
What you can do yourself
- Just use the word. If you can’t say it, you can’t make an agreement about it either.
- Have a dental dam ready when you don’t know someone well yet.
- Skip it with stomach trouble, yours or the other person’s. That is the one hard rule here.
More on rimming
The full explanation is on rimjob, with the figures on how often it happens and the origin of the English word. Beyond that, anal sex explains what penetration asks for. If you want to do it once with the calm and the agreements in place, that belongs with an intimate togetherness.
Sources
- Shigellose | LCI-richtlijn. National Coordination for Communicable Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), published March 26, 2025. The official Dutch disease-control guideline. Used here: the mention of “(in)direct oral-anal contact (such as rimming)” as a shared risk factor in outbreaks, which is the only place the Dutch word was found in an official guideline; the fecal-oral route of infection; the incubation period of usually 1 to 3 days and sometimes up to 8; the estimate that up to 80 percent of all infections pass from person to person (DuPont 1989); and the finding that sexual transmission occurs when people come into contact with stool.
- Shigellosis Among Gay and Bisexual Men: A Qualitative Assessment to Examine Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices. E. Caruso, E. R. Wright, E. T. Respress, S. L. Evener, K. Jacobson, A. Bowen, R. Kachur & A. Garcia-Williams, Sexually Transmitted Diseases 47(9), 596–601, 2020 (DOI 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001220). Qualitative research from the US CDC; full text read via PubMed Central. Used here is only the list of sex-related prevention measures: condoms and other barriers such as dental dams, washing the genitals and anus before sexual contact, and no sex during illness, with the authors’ note that further research is needed to establish which of those measures is most effective. The study population was men who have sex with men; the measures themselves are not group-specific.
- rimmen. Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, consulted August 4, 2026. The ANW is the scholarly dictionary of contemporary Dutch. Used here is the result itself: the entry rimmen is absent (“sorry, this article is not (yet) in the ANW”), which on this page is used only as a statement about the lexicographical status of the word and not as a statement about its use.
Related terms
Rimming is one word from a small Dutch-English pair. The rest of the neighborhood is about the same spot.
Frequently asked questions
Three questions about the word rimming.
Is the Dutch word rimmen in the dictionary?
No. The Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek of the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal returns one line for the entry rimmen: this article isn’t in it. Strikingly, the RIVM does use the word. The LCI guideline on shigellosis literally lists, among the risk factors, “(in)direct oral-anal contact (such as rimming).”
Who can you turn to with questions about rimming?
Victor, a gigolo with twenty-five years of experience in BDSM and trained as a psychotherapist. He uses the word you use and won’t talk around it. Ask your question through the contact form or start with a free chat.
More info
Just say it the way you call it
I'm Victor. You don't have to hunt for a polite word for it, and you don't have to talk around it. Write me what you mean, and I'll tell you honestly what works and what doesn't.
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