apotemnophilia
apotemnophilia noun: a psychological disorder characterized by the intense and long-standing desire for amputation of a specific limb.
Noun
apotemnophilia (uncountable)
- A psychological disorder characterized by the intense and long-standing desire for amputation of a specific limb.
- Antonyms:
- apotemnophobia
- A compulsion to become, or appear to be, an amputee.
- This paper seeks to present information on apotemnophilia. It points out the need of a man to have a healthy leg amputated, despite the fact that he cannot find a surgeon who will do so.1983, W. Everaerd, “A case of apotemnophilia: a handicap as sexual preference”, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, volume 7, number 2, page 285
- In most cases of apotemnophilia the desire to be an amputee is linked to a form of sexual arousal, but Mr Smith said there was no suggestion that any of his patients were motivated by sexual urges.2000 February 1, Gerard Seenan, “Healthy limbs cut off at patients' request”, in The Guardian
Antonyms of apotemnophilia
Origin of apotemnophilia
Coined in a paper in 1977 by J. Money et al. in the Journal of Sex Research,http://www.jstor.org/pss/3811894, from Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “away”) + τέμνω (témnō, “cut”) + -philia.
Words formed from apotemnophilia
Questions about apotemnophilia
- What does apotemnophilia mean?
- Apotemnophilia means a psychological disorder characterized by the intense and long-standing desire for amputation of a specific limb.
- What part of speech is apotemnophilia?
- Apotemnophilia is a noun.
Words near apotemnophilia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: apotemnophilia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “apotemnophilia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/apotemnophilia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.