09 What Do All These Damned Abbreviations Like "Iso" And "Swm" And"GM" And "Swcf" Mean?
Description
This article is from the Internet Personals: Advice for Straights FAQ, by Dean Esmay esmay@syndicomm.com with numerous contributions by others.
09 What Do All These Damned Abbreviations Like "Iso" And "Swm" And"GM" And "Swcf" Mean?
Not everyone uses these abbreviations, but, they are a common
shorthand for indicating marital status, race, sex, religion, and a
few other common things. The most prominently used ones include:
S = Single
D = Divorced
M = Married (rare)
W = Widowed (rare)
J = Jewish
C = Christian
W = White
B = Black
A = Asian (oriental)
H = Hispanic
M = Male
F = Female
G = Gay
Bi = Bisexual
Bi-Curious - Someone curious about bisexuality and thinking about
giving it a try.
* = Any
The positioning works as follows: First marital status, then religion
(if any given), then race, then sex. Usually what you get is three,
such as:
SWM - "Single White Male."
SWF - "Single White Female."
An M or a W are, VERY RARELY, used to indicate marital status. In
this case they are always in the first position:
MHM - Married Hispanic Male
WWF - Widowed White Female
Religious affiliation is fairly rare, but when you do see it, it
usually comes just before or after racial type, such as:
SCWF - Single Christian White Female
SWCF - Single White Christian Female
For whatever reason, Judaism and Christianity are the only religions
commonly abbreviated at this time; if you're of another religion, I
suggest not trying to abbreviate, as you'll probably just confuse
people.
Sometimes you'll just see "SF" or "SM" for Single Male or Single
Female. This means the person doesn't want to indicate race. You
may also see something like "S*F" or "S*M". This is just another way
of saying race is irrelevent to the person.
Other abbreviations you might see include:
ISO = In Search Of
FTA = Fun, Travel, and Adventure
Soulmate = Someone I can be completely intimate with who will be with
me forever and ever, my perfect mate, my special lover and friend for
life.
So. Here's common things you'll see:
GWM ISO G*M for FTA
(Gay White Male In Search Of Fun/Travel/Adventure with Gay Male of
any race.)
WWF seeks soulmate.
(Widowed White Female seeks special mate-for-life.)
Finally, all of these are often concatenated with age and/or
location. Such as:
BOSTON DWM, 42, ISO SWF, 25-40
(Divorced White Male, 42 years old, living in Boston and In Search Of
a Single White Female, age 25 to 40.)
Not everyone uses these abbreviations, but a lot of people do,
because they make it easy for people to spot you and know if you're
at least in the ballpark of what they're looking for. You may see
variations on these abbreviations that you don't recognize, but
usually you can figure it out from context once you get the trick of
it.
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