Words: Autopeotomy, n.

NEWS THAT Robin Will- iams will star as Dr Minor in the movie of Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne makes one speculate about the digital technology required. To bring to life the Broadmoor-incarcerated scholar will require something akin to that notorious scene in Boogie Nights.

In the book, Winchester includes his own bid to make the next edition of the OED (rumour has it that he will be successful): peotomy exists, from the Greek for amputation of the Johnson, but Winchester adapted it for Minor's extraordinary, bloodless act: a closely- described autopeotomy: and then, with "one swift movement that most would prefer not to imagine, he sliced off his organ about one inch from its base. He threw the offending object in the fire."