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Glossary

by J.

Abbreviations

In pursuit of brevity and truncation, not so surprising I suppose, in the devotee/amputee community, a variety of abbreviations have come into use. These combine the initial letters of the descriptions of the amputations that a person has undergone into three letter combinations, for example 'SAK'. Some people new to the scene may be confused by these. I, personally, find the reference to somebody as a DAK, offensive. The gloss of this is 'Double Above the Knee' and refers to someone both of whose legs have been amputated above the knee. So it saves time to refer to someone as a DAK, but this emphasises one physical attribute to the exclusion of all the other attributes of the person, and if such a term, for example, BTM (Bad Tempered Middle-aged) were applied to me, not surprisingly, I would be annoyed, even though it may be appropriate. Nevertheless, for information, the following abbreviations are in common use in our community:

A	Above	B	Below
D	Disarticulation (Suffix)
L	Left	R	Right
S	Single (Prefix)	D	Double (Prefix)
H	Hip (Infix)	S	Shoulder (Infix)
K	Knee	E	Elbow

Which, combined, give...

Arm condition	Left	Right	Double	Single
Shoulder Disarticulation	LSD	RSD	DSD	SSD
Above Elbow	LAE	RAE	DAE	SAE
Below Elbow	LBE	RBE	DBE	SBE
Leg condition	Left	Right	Double	Single
Hip Disarticulation	LHD	RHD	DHD	SHD
Above Knee	LAK	RAK	DAK	SAK
Below Knee	LBK	RBK	DBK	SBK

Note that amputations through the knee or elbow are knee or elbow disarticulations but are refered as being AK and AE respectively. Feet amputations through the ankle are often called "Syme's amputations" and are refered as BK.

Thus it becomes easy to refer to Sue as a LAK. In fact, she is tall, slim, beautiful, has long blond hair, and a lovely smile; also her left leg has been amputated above the knee. I wonder which description she would prefer: I know which I would.

Acrotomophilia

The feeling of strong attraction towards others who are amputees. Also referred to by the term amelotatism.

'Doctor, doctor, I am strongly attracted to others who are amputees.'
'You have acrotomophilia.'
'But that sounds really serious.'
'The etymology of acrotomophilia is from the Greek: akron, terminal, topmost, tomos, cut, phily, love, admiration.'
'All you're telling me is that I have a strong attraction towards others who are amputees.'
'Yes, that will be 50 guineas. Pay the receptionist when you leave.'

Note that this term is today mostely used to designate amputation or stump fetishists, which are not to be confused with the following:

Devotee

A person who is strongly attracted to others who possess particular physical characteristics, such as unusually large breasts. It is applied to themselves by some who are attracted to others who have physical impairments, especially by those attracted to amputees.

Wannabe

A person who desires to become an amputee by having one or more healthy limbs amputated. (see: What Ought We To Do About Wannabes?)

Psychiatrist

A person who on being informed that someone finds amputees sexually attractive, is a devotee, (see above) informs him, in return for a fat fee, that he is an acrotomophiliac (see above). Also known as a shrink because he (usually he) is concerned with shrinking the variance of human feelings and desires to some norm, and treating those who differ from the average as though they were ill. A dangerous and poisonous sort of person, to be avoided by people of taste and independence.

Please send us suitably ironical and witty definitions of pompous psychological jargon defining simple and harmless desires, to be added to the glossary by clicking here.

original definitions by J., Tables by Paul