Glossary
Voorbinddildo
The Dutch word appears four times in a century and a half of newspapers, and three of those four times it was about television.
What is a voorbinddildo?
A voorbinddildo (English: strap-on) is a dildo fastened in front of the body with a harness, so that whoever wears it can penetrate without using their hands. It is the Dutch word for the strap-on: the Dutch names the act of strapping something on at the front, the English names the straps. Who wears it and who receives it is not fixed.
| English term | strap-on, which points to the straps rather than the act |
| What it belongs to | a dildo with a wearable harness; pegging is the best-known use |
| What the word points to | voorbinden, to tie on at the front of the body, recorded in the WNT with a citation from 1552 |
| In Dutch newspapers | four articles, between 1988 and 1997; the same archive gives zero for strap-on |
| Who wears it | any combination of people; the harness makes no demands on the body underneath |
| Where it usually goes wrong | at the fastening, not at the size, worked out on strap-on |
Where the word voorbinddildo comes from
From television criticism, and only in 1988.
In the Dutch newspaper archive this word appears exactly four times. The oldest is in Het Parool of 15 February 1988, in Theodor Holman’s TV column about the VARA’s Nachtshow. There Betty Paërl explains why her act was cut: “It is in fact a lesbian SM act, and you see one of the ladies fucking another lady with a voorbind-dildo. The VARA did not want any close-ups of that.” With a hyphen in it, and from the same woman who six years earlier brought the word for vanilla sex into the Dutch press.
Three of the four occurrences are about television. After 1988 come a TV column in Trouw from 1995 and a review in the Algemeen Dagblad from 1997, about three couples doing a “consumer test of voorbinddildo’s” on Goedele Liekens’s show. The fourth is a book review from 1993, in which an Amsterdam porn wholesaler gives an English writer one as a gift and he turns it down because customs might make trouble. So the word entered here as something people saw on screen.
Why it is called a voorbinddildo and not a strap-on
Because Dutch takes the verb and English takes the strap.
Voorbinden is centuries older than the object. The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, the historical dictionary of Dutch, treats it under VOOR and defines it as “to tie at the front of something, esp. in front of the body,” with its oldest citation from Servilius, who in 1552 translated the Latin praeligo as “ic binde voor,” I tie in front. All the quotations that follow are about aprons: an apron cloth in 1693, the leather apron a Haarlem apprentice was allowed to tie on in 1751 only after his master had paid three stuivers, and a tucked-up skirt in 1920. Dutch thus places this object linguistically in the family of the apron, while strap-on does nothing but name the straps.
What you do with it
Penetrate without your own body having to supply the shape.
Pegging is the best-known form, and that page carries the anatomy and the build-up. Vaginally, the same harness works just as well, and between two women that was the first meaning the word took on in Dutch, in the sources above. How much lubricant and how much time it takes is on anal sex.
Where this fits on my site
I’m Victor, and a voorbinddildo is not on my list of options, so I’m not going to offer you anything here. What I can do is the conversation about it, from how you raise something like this at home to what to ask for in a shop. How an appointment with me is prepared is on the page about the BDSM date.
Sources
- Na afloop. Column by Theodor Holman in Het Parool, 15 February 1988. Newspaper archive of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the Dutch Royal Library), read word for word from the OCR. The oldest of four occurrences of voorbinddildo in that archive. Provides the hyphenated spelling, the occasion (a lesbian SM act by Betty Paërl and her group the Pearls Perverted that the VARA cut from the Nachtshow), and the quote in which she describes the act.
- voorbinden. Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal via the Geïntegreerde Taalbank of the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. One entry, treated under VOOR. Provides the meaning “to tie at the front of something, esp. in front of the body,” the oldest citation from Servilius in 1552 with the translation of praeligo as “ic binde voor,” and the quotations that follow it: the apron cloth in Asselijn in 1693, the leather apron from the Haarlem guild rules of 1751, and the tucked-up skirt in Smeding in 1920.
- Newspaper archive of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Delpher). Queried through the SRU service, collection DDD_artikel. Provides the count of four articles with voorbinddildo and their spread: Het Parool of 15 February 1988, Het Parool of 20 February 1993 (a review of Sex and the British by Paul Ferris, who is given one by porn wholesaler Charles Geerts and turns it down over customs), Trouw of 15 September 1995, and the Algemeen Dagblad of 21 May 1997 with the consumer test on Goedele Liekens’s show.
Related terms
A voorbinddildo is the Dutch name for the strap-on, and that page carries the harness types and the word history of the English term.
- Strap-on. The same object under its English name, with the two harness types and the difference between a ring and a vacuum seal.
- Dildo. What goes in the harness, with the materials and the wide base that makes fastening possible.
- Pegging. The act this object is best known for, with the research on it.
- Anal sex. The build-up, the lube, and the pace a voorbinddildo needs just as much.
- Prostate massage. What happens in a man under the front wall this dildo touches.
Frequently asked questions
What people still ask about a voorbinddildo.
What is a voorbinddildo?
A voorbinddildo is a dildo fastened in front of the body with a harness, so that whoever wears it can penetrate without using their hands. The Dutch word names the act of strapping on, not the object being strapped on. Who wears it and who receives it is not fixed.
Is a voorbinddildo the same as a strap-on?
Yes, it is the same object under two names. Voorbinddildo is the Dutch word and strap-on the English one; the first names the strapping on, the second the straps. Dutch web shops use both interchangeably, so the only difference is the language.
Where does the word voorbinddildo come from?
From the verb voorbinden, which the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal defines as “to tie at the front of something, esp. in front of the body,” with a citation from 1552. In print the word voorbinddildo is young: the Dutch newspaper archive gives four articles for it, and the oldest is a TV column in Het Parool of 15 February 1988.
Who can you turn to with questions about a voorbinddildo?
Victor, a gigolo with twenty-five years of experience in BDSM and a background as a psychotherapist. Questions about a voorbinddildo are rarely about the object and almost always about the roles around it, and he’d rather have that conversation than have you look it up somewhere. You can ask without obligation through the contact form or chat for free.
Learn more
Still have questions about a voorbinddildo?
I'm Victor. This object comes with more assumptions than questions, and the one I hear most is that it fixes who does what. Ask me anyway; it costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Closing CTA on /term/voorbinddildo, rendered by GlossaryTerm.astro as the last block on
the page. Pairs with the final FAQ item 04-learn-more-about-strap-on.md. Wording kept
distinct from /en/term/strap-on/cta.md, /en/term/pegging/cta.md and
/en/term/dildo/cta.md. This body text is never rendered.