# Who or what is a "Hifamite"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442 "2010-11-21T15:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/1 "2010-11-21T15:57:42Z")
I work in a Government Ministry in London and last week came across an abusive (but strangely articulate) e-mail that had been sent directly to one of the Ministers. The sender even included his full name and address. It referred to the Government and its MPs as “Hifamites”. It sounds vaguely Biblical but I cannot find the word anywhere. Does it actually mean anything or was it just this nutter’s invention? (I usually find that insults work best if the recipient understands them.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/2 "2010-11-21T16:27:47Z")
You sure it wasn’t [‘catamite’](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/catamite)? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/3 "2010-11-21T16:29:15Z")
You can find a couple old documents in French, referring to “Hisamites”. They use the “long s” printing, making it look like “Hifamites”: > **[Voyages faits principalement en Asie dans les XII, XIII, XIV, et XV siecles](https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtE_AAAAcAAJ&lpg=PT353&ots=ozgjRufxH8&dq=hifamite&pg=PT353&hl=en)** > **[La Bibliotheque Historiale](https://books.google.com/books?id=9BNCAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA283&ots=C6rviMl2sh&dq=hisamite&pg=PA283#v=onepage&q&f=false)** They appear to be pages from books published in the 16th and 18th centuries and I have no idea what they are on about. ETA: “Catamite” would make a great deal more sense as an insult, but if you’re going that far afield, maybe he meant “Hashemite”, accusing them of some unholy alliance with the Arab dynasty. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/4 "2010-11-21T16:34:25Z")
It’s like Marmite or Vegemite but made of hifa not mar or vege. Or the loony thinks that the MPs favour High-Fidelity Amplitude Modulation? Or if it was a typo for “hitamite”, he could be saying that they are alumni of the Hyderabad Institute of Technology and Management. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/5 "2010-11-21T18:31:33Z")
Given the context of the text yabob found, I’m going to say that “hifamite” is indeed a misreading of French Hisamite, which is rendered in English as Hishamite. This is apparently an old (possibly incorrect) name for Islamic sect or heresy professing the divinity of the Messiah, metempsychosis, and the primacy of free will, or another (Shi’ite) sect or heresy attributing a physical body to god. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/6 "2010-11-22T08:14:06Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > metempsychosis My spellchecker recognizes this but I don’t. 😉 (It’s an obscure term for reincarnation, specifically the idea of the transmigration of the soul. _Another_ heresy, to hear the Christians tell it, and one the rise of the Christian Church wiped out in Greece.) ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/7 "2010-11-22T12:38:33Z")
Thanks, all. If this twit did mean “Hishamite”, I still don’t see how it qualifies as an insult towards Government Ministers! I do recognise “metempsychosis” from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” - rendered “met him pike hoses” by Molly Bloom. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/8 "2010-11-22T19:10:05Z")
Well, what was he complaining about? Might give a clue. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/9 "2010-11-23T13:10:46Z")
It was to do with the railways. Nothing specific - not even complaining about how high rail fares are (especially when compared with our European neighbours), which is commonest gripe. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/10 "2010-11-23T16:11:23Z")
Perhaps he was a trainspotter and he was upset that your Minister denies the divinity of the Metro-Cammell Class 4 Diesel Multiple Unit. ---
**Author:** ![jamesbanville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/77aa72/32.png) [@jamesbanville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jamesbanville)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/11 "2011-05-24T17:27:17Z")
I am james banville and I was the person who wrote to a minister referring to him as a hifamite, and yes, I am a nutter. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/12 "2011-05-24T19:59:55Z")
Thank you for checking in. Can you give a description of what the heck a hifamite is? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/13 "2011-05-24T22:22:23Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > I work in a Government Ministry in London and last week came across an abusive (but strangely articulate) e-mail that had been sent directly to one of the Ministers. The sender even included his full name and address. Hmm. If the name in the email is actually James Banville, you might want to think about sending someone round to ask him directly what his insult was intended to imply. Because it certainly doesn’t look like he’s going to be particularly informative within the context of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![jamesbanville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/77aa72/32.png) [@jamesbanville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jamesbanville)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/14 "2011-05-28T02:09:20Z")
James Banville here. Hifamite is a word I plucked out of the mangled up part of my brain where such things are stored, it’s entirely invented. If someone called me a hifamite, not knowing what the word meant I would still feel (for some obscure reason) that I was being insulted. I have a list of such words I use, usually for politicians. If I used the words I would really like to use I’d probably be woken up at 0530 by the sound of my front door being battered open by a herd of fully tool-up robocops. Not a pleasant experience. I honestly can’t remember what this particular minister said or done to get my blood boiling so it couldn’t have been anything that would require the services of Tony Soprano, I only give him a ring to ‘educate’ the real nasty inquatillious seradites from the scrag-end of the human chain. By the way, I don’t object to being referred to as a ‘twit’, ‘a nutter’ or a ‘looney’ but ‘a trainspotter’? That was like a knife between my ribs. I’m down, but hopefully not out. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-or-what-is-a-hifamite/561442/15 "2011-05-28T02:27:30Z")
Stick around, **jamesbanville**. I think you’d fit in nicely on this message board. 😉