Nymphomaniac!!!Is that a real word? I couldn’t remember so I looked in the Thorndike-Barnhart intermediate dictionary and it wasn’t in there. Nymph is as far as it went.
Anyway is this condition an urban myth? Did we make this term up for women who just have a higher than average sex drive? What is the opposite label for men if any… 
“I think it speaks to the duality of man sir.”
(private Joker in Full Metal Jacket)
Satyr.
And you can add “-omaniac” to the end of just about any word.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
But how many times have you heard a man called a satyr? Not once I bet. Men can run around screwing anything that’ll hold still long enough and there is no name-callling but a woman – she’s a nymphomaniac.
Hoo boy.
I really don’t think that attitude is so common anymore. At least not in my neck of the woods. Hasn’t been for quite a while.
Not since “The Pill”. I don’t think the word is even in common usage, except among frustrated teenage boys. 
Women are now pretty much free to enjoy their bodies in any way they see fit, Without any real stigma. Hooray, I say.
Peace,
mangeorge
nym-pho-ma-ni-a n. abnormal, uncontrollable sexual desire in a female. Compare SATYRIASIS. –nymphomaniac n., adj. –nymphomaniacal adj. (Webster’s)
Also, since I still had it out, from the nymph entry in Dictionary of Word Origins: “The original sense ‘bride’ lies behind nymphomania, coined in the second half of the 18th century.”
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
“We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F.
By seventh grade, or so, you should probably put away your Thorndike-Barnhart for either the Merriam-Webster xth Collegiate or the American Heritage Collegiate. (They each have their partisans; Random House Collegiate is OK as well.)
If you don’t have the current price available in this week’s budget, try linking to the Merriam-Webster at
http://www.m-w.com/
There, you can type in “nymph*****” and it will bring back all the words that begin that way (entering “f*****uck” returns “fire truck” among other words):
Main Entry: nym·pho·ma·nia
Pronunciation: "nim§-f&-'mA-nE-&, -ny&
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from nymphae inner lips of the vulva (from Latin, plural of nympha) + Late Latin mania mania
Date: 1775
: excessive sexual desire by a female
Tom~
The OED give a different etymology: from the Greek νύµfον (bride) + µaνίa(madness). (AFAIK, the Latin for “inner lips of the vulva” is labia minora).
It also provides a quote from a 1962 Textbook of Psychosexual disorders:
(Emphasis added).
Sorry, the MB screwed up my Greek:
nymphon = bride
mania = madness
as for the original question about whether it’s an urban legend, iirc it was a freudian construct. he was pretty screwed up relative to females, had major problems w/ seeing penis envy in every female action, i believe was a momma’s boy, had a thing for cigars (hmm, this sounds familiar). otoh, he had a very victorian idea tht sex was pretty gross & a proper, normal woman would submit but neither really enjoy nor initiate sex. that was for the guys only.
sooo, any woman who did was essentially a slut, which he prettied up w/ the word nymphomaniac. & it wasn’t even ‘higher than average sex drive’ for freud. it was for him any woman who wasn’t a sexual stoic.
as i said, he was pretty screwed up, which is pretty much why so many of his initial followers went off to do their own thing. most of his earliest work is pretty much ignored now, w/ the realization that he was so biased as to make his conclusions irrelevant.
&, no, i don’t believe there was ever a male equivelant of the word, because a strong sex drive was always considered right & proper for a man.
Stay with me folks, I’m certain I’m driving towards a conclusion here, but I refuse to stop and ask for directions. . . . . Baloo
“it is clinically very rare.”
Curses! Foiled Again!
I know about nymphomania. It’s not that little sex fantasy you are having aha.
nymphomania is to sex what alcoholism is to alcohol, gambling is to money, Etc. It’s not that the woman wants or likes the sex, she just has to have it, like a heroin dose. She may do anything to get it, just like a drug addict needs drugs. It is NOT a pretty picture.
And no, she doesn’t enjoy it like most people would enjoy sex.
Well, men who run around ‘dipping the wick’ into anything female which will hold still long enough are today called any of the following;
’Playa (afro-eccentric version of the 1960s ‘Play Boy’), Dog, S.O.B, Lying, cheating, S.O.B., Stud, No-good-lying-cheating-S.O.B., Home-boy, Dawg, and assorted names that I’d have to print under [CENSORED] icons.'
Now, if you watch Jerry Springer, such guys are usually White, very fat, young, close shaven hair, close set eyes, bland ‘I don’t give a shit’ expression, and seem to have an I.Q. almost too low to register. (Yet they often show up with these PRETTY, tiny women.)
What? Me worry?’
Damn. I thought this thread was about the itinerant peddler from Green Acres…
“I hate to break up the set, Mr. Douglas…”
Launcher may train without warning.
handy, i understand sexual addiction (either sex, or all of 'em, i guess!) is a recognized problem; but from whence to you “know about” something, nymphomania, that was essentially a figment of dr. freud’s personal inadequacies, is generally recognized as such? i’m wondering whether you have a regular subscription to ‘hustler’ or if you pick it up at the newsstand.
satyriasis n. abnormal, uncontrollable sexual desire in a male. Compare NYMPHOMANIA.
:rolleyes:
well, i’ll be dipped in snuff, kat. it’s only fair, but i don’t recall ever seeing a word for it. altho i rather liked “playa (afro-eccentric version of the 1960s ‘play boy’), dog, s.o.b., lying, cheating, s.o.b., stud, no-good-lying-cheating-s.o.b., home-boy, dawg, and assorted names that i’d have to print undr (censored) icons.” seemed to cover it rather well actually.