Bondmate (glossary term)

Synonyms:	Soulmate
See also:	Soulbond
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Bondmate is a term used in Star Trek: TOS fandom, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace fandom and the novels of Mercedes Lackey. It means, roughly, "spouse" or "committed partner."

It is also used interchangeably with soulmate in many fandoms.

Origins

Judith Brownlee's 1971 Star Trek: TOS story, From Whatever Distant Hill, is very likely the birthplace of the fanon word: bond-mate.

In a 1971 letter, Brownlee wrote:

I got a loc on ET II which complemented me on inventing the word "bond-mate". Well, now, I am not aware that I invented it. Gail and Dee say that we just started using it one day in our conversations. I know that I did not use it in my second draft of "From Whatever Distant Hill," because I added it when I typed the stencil for ET II. I'm still not sure we didn't pick it up from somebody else. You come up with things that fit so well into your conceptions and you adopt them until they seem like rock-bound fact.

Other Fandoms

• In Beauty and the Beast, it is used in the zine Vincent's Pride.
• The Bondmate Chronicles by D.J. Sutherlin and many other recent erotic fantasy novels use this expression.

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.