had some interesting items for us.

From the letters page: http://makeashorterlink.com/?D15F62364

It is questionable, however, whether the word ulug (lout) has dropped out of current Arabic usage. The word derives from Hulagu (hence “hooligan”), a leader of the Mongols who stormed Baghdad in 1258 sparking a Muslim revolt.

Makes a change from blaming it on the Irish.

And from a book review: http://makeashorterlink.com/?X26F42364

This argument is familiar enough when it comes to discussions of Prozac, cosmetics or breast implants. The novelty of “Better Than Well” is that it makes the same case for such unlikely procedures as accent reduction, transsexual surgery and apotemnophilia (a longing for amputation); one man's mutilation, it seems, is another's self-discovery.


I'm not sure from the context whether apotemnophilia means a longing to have part of the body amputated or whether it means finding amputees sexually attractive. I suspect the former. In which case what is the latter called?

Bingley

Bingley,

I think your posted word apotemnophilia may now qualify as being the strangest concept ever posted on this board in its brief history. The love of having one's limbs amputated... Even at 2:37 a.m. I am now wide awake with wonder and amazement.

Well, there was the film, I guess of a book, I think by JG Ballard, about people being turned on by being in car accidents and by the wounds that resulted. Was it called 'Crash'? Didn't see it or read it and doubt that I will ever bother, but a similarly strange concept. ICLU, but...don't feel any great urge towards accuracy on this one!

dxb, I did see that movie on video because Holly Hunter was in it and I admire her acting. Very strange. It didn't seem that the characters so much loved being injured (and possibly killed) in the automobile accidents they brought upon themselves as instead wanting to feel something intense in an otherwise meaningless existence. Better to feel intense pain rather than walk through an emotionally empty life. That seemed to be part of the dark message carried by the characters.

I'm not sure from the context whether apotemnophilia means a longing to have part of the body amputated or whether it means finding amputees sexually attractive. I suspect the former. In which case what is the latter called?

Dunno Bingley, you've got me stumped ...

It's just an 'armless quirk!

re apotemnophilia (a longing for amputation)... or is it being attacted to an amputee?

Now i understand who Saturday Night live skits that feature an actor who is frequently claiming "i got one leg" are appealing to...

"Dunno Bingley, you've got me stumped ..."

Poor dear Capfka: What part did you have amputated?

Here is a link about apotemnophilia:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/12/elliott.htm

Hulagu and the Mongols seem to have made important contributions to terrorism.
It is estimated that he killed 800,000 people in his Baghdad operation.
That's "hooliganism"?

apotemnophilia: a paraphilic fixation of the stigmatic/eligibilic type in which sexuoerotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to and contingent on being oneself an amputee [from Greek, apo, from + temnein, to cut + -philia]. An apotemnophile becomes fixated on carrying out a self-contrived amputation, or obtaining one in a hospital. It is accompanied by obsessional scheming to get one or more limbs amputated. The reciprocal paraphilic condition in which the partner is an amputee is acrotomophilia or acrotmetophilia (the liking of an amputated extremity); the condition of sexuoerotic arousal being contingent on having an amputee partner, or fantasizing about an amputee, in order to obtain erotic arousal and facilitate or achieve orgasm.

Article, with same def., and some expounding:
http://www.amputee-online.com/amputee/wannabee.html

Hulagu and the Mongols seem to have made important contributions to terrorism.
It is estimated that he killed 800,000 people in his Baghdad operation.
That's "hooliganism"?

And very successful hooliganism, too, I'd have thought.

very successful hooliganism, too

Did they have football back in those days?

No, but I think they had ice hockey.