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Amok, sometimes spelled amuck and often used as "running amok," is a Malay word which in that language means to be out of control.

The word is often used in English to refer to the behaviour of someone who, in the grip of strong emotion, obtains a weapon and begins attacking people indiscriminately, often with multiple fatalities. This could be used to describe the École Polytechnique Massacre, for example. The slang term going postal is similar in intent and more common, particularly in North America. Police describe such an event as a spree killing.

Amok is one of a number of Malay words borrowed by the English language. Others are "kris", "agar", "batik", "Orang-utan", "padi" (paddy), "rambutan", "sagu" (sago) and "sarung" (sarong).

Some sources have identified Malaysians as having a particular tendency to run amok, though they are by no means the only people to do so. For example, W.W. Skeat writes in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapons, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed. These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity. It is now, however, certain that the typical amok is the result of circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which render a Malay desperate and weary of his life. It is, in fact, the Malay equivalent of suicide. "The act of running amuck is probably due to causes over which the culprit has some amount of control, as the custom has now died out in the British possessions in the peninsula, the offenders probably objecting to being caught and tried in cold blood."

The observations of Skeat about the Malay race are not unique since beserker myths and the Zulu battle trance are two other examples of the tendency of certain groups to work themselves up into a killing frenzy

Indeed the following excerpts, from the 1911 encyclopaedia, reveal this fact well:

Though so intimately associated with the Malay there is some ground for believing the word to have an Indian origin, and the act is certainly far from unknown in Indian history. Some notable cases have occurred among the Rajputs. Thus, in 1634, the eldest son of the raja of Jodhpur ran amok at the court of Shah Jahan, failing in his attack on the emperor, but killing five of his officials. During the 18th century, again, at Hyderabad (Sind), two envoys, sent by the Jodhpur chief in regard to a quarrel between the two states, stabbed the prince and twenty-six of his suite before they themselves fell.

In Malabar there were certain professional assassins known to old travellers as Amouchi or Amuco. The nearest modern equivalent to these words would seem to be the Malayalim Amar-khan, "a warrior" (from amar, "fight"). The Malayalam term chaver applied to these ruffians meant literally those "who devote themselves to death." In Malabar was a custom by which the zamorin or king of Calicut had to cut his throat in public when he had reigned twelve years. In the 17th century a variation in his fate was made. He had to take his seat, after a great feast lasting twelve days, at a national assembly, surrounded by his armed suite, and it was lawful for anyone to attack him, and if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself became zamorin (see Alex. Hamilton, "A new Account of the East Indies," in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, viii. 374). In 1600 thirty would-be assassins were killed in their attempts. These men were called Amar-khan, and it has been suggested that their action was "running amok" in the true Malay sense. Another proposed derivation for amouchi is Sanskrit amokshya, "that cannot be loosed," suggesting that the murderer was bound by a vow, an explanation more than once advanced for the Malay amok; but amokshya in such a sense is unknown in Malayalim.

John Brunner's book Stand on Zanzibar describes a society that is so overcrowded that people running amok (there called muckers) are so common everyone arms themselves (of course making the problem worse).

External links

Johannes Grenzfurthner's article "Every Five Seconds an Inkjet Printer Dies Somewhere" theorizes about the cultural history of 'Amok'.

• "Every Five Seconds an Inkjet Printer Dies Somewhere" (http://www.monochrom.at/amok/)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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Amok is also the title of a 1922 novel by Stefan Zweig.

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AMOK! is also the name of a contemporary martial art (for both military and civilian application) founded by Tom Sotis. AMOK! includes some elements of eskrima and Filpino Martial Arts. This contemporary martial art focuses on bladework, with stick, empty-hand, and firearm components. It enjoys a dedicated following in South Africa, and has teachers and students all over the world. See AMOK! and AMOK! South Africa

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