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masochist (BDSM): A person who enjoys receiving pain.

New Relationship Energy (polyamory): The obsessive, irrational joy one feels after starting a relationship with a new and awesome partner. Here's an article about it: http://aphroweb.net/articles/nre.htm

out [of the closet] (queer studies): An adjective to describe a person who is open with people outside her sexual subculture about her sexual identity.

play (BDSM): A verb for having an S&M encounter. For example, if Clarisse was whipped by a gentleman, she might say that she "played with him." Clarisse once saw a display at the Leather Archives & Museum claiming that in Old Guard Leather Culture (i.e, gay men's S&M culture starting around the 1950s), the word was more often "work" than "play" -- apparently, even S&M toys were usually called "tools."

play party (BDSM): A party where S&M can happen openly. Some play parties ban sexual intercourse, while others don't.

polyamory: A community to support people who want to have multiple lovers and be honest with everyone involved. Polyamory usually focuses more on an emotional relationship than swing, but not always. The writer Franklin Veaux has a good Polyamory 101: http://www.xeromag.com/fvpoly.html And the blog Polyamory In The News has a good post on the various distinctions between polyamory and swing: http://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/polys-vs-swingers-as-viewed-from-2010.html

primary relationship (polyamory): A relationship with more commitment and expectations than other relationships. For example, a primary relationship might be one where the participants live together and/or are married. Polyamorists sometimes disagree about whether relationship hierarchies are desirable.

rape culture (feminism): A culture in which rape is prevalent and is maintained through fundamental attitudes and beliefs about gender, sexuality, and violence, including rape myths.

rape myths (feminism): Cultural ideas that make it harder to recognize, prosecute, and heal from rape. For example, many people believe that rape usually happens to young, "hot" women... but interviews with rapists show that they usually prioritize targets based on how vulnerable they are, rather than how "hot" they are.

sadist (BDSM): A person who enjoys inflicting pain.

safeword (BDSM): A word that any S&M participant can say at any time to stop the action. Safewords are extensively analyzed within this book, in the "The Annotated Safeword" (part 1).

scene; The Scene (BDSM): The word scene is often used to indicate an S&M encounter. For example, if Clarisse was whipped by some dude, she "had a scene" with him (or some would say that she scened with him). The Scene is also sometimes used to indicate the public S&M community -- the dungeons, workshops, lectures, discussion groups, and meetups that create an open network of BDSMers in many areas.

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