Go to 'thermo-' entry Go to 'dino-' entry Go to 'chondro-' entry Go to 'aero-' entry Go to '-logy' entry Go to 'thaumato-' entry Go to 'nano-' entry Go to '-sophy' entry Go to 'bucco-' entry Go to '-ism' entry Go to '-lysis' entry Go to 'galacto-' entry Go to '-anthropy' entry Go to 'pneumo-' entry Go to '-ploitation' entry Go to '-lithic' entry Go to '-sepalous' entry Go to 'onco-' entry Go to '-parous' entry Go to 'dermato-' entry Go to 'multi-' entry Go to 'dodeca-' entry Go to '-zoon' entry Go to 'vermi-' entry Go to 'crystallo-' entry Go to 'biblio-' entry Go to 'eco-' entry Go to 'juxta-' entry Go to 'facio-' entry
Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
  Home Introduction About the author Types of affixes Thematic indexes Search the site   A B C D E F G H I JK L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z   Previous entry Next entry Up to index of A  

-aholic Also -oholic.

A person excessively fond of something.

[The ending of alcoholic, a person suffering from alcoholism.]

Many terms in this ending have disparaging or facetious associations and few refer to an addiction in the medical sense. Some common examples are workaholic, a person who compulsively works excessively hard and unusually long hours; chocoholic (less often chocaholic), a person who is excessively fond of chocolate; and shopaholic, a compulsive shopper. Words are often created to meet a momentary need: computerholic, a person who spends too much time in front of a computer (here the initial a of the ending is replaced by the unstressed final er of computer); gymaholic, someone who spends too much time exercising at the gym.

Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!

Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Page last updated 23 September 2008.
Your comments and suggestions on the site are very welcome.