Also ‑maniac and ‑mane.
Mental abnormality or obsession; extreme enthusiasm or admiration.
Greek mania, madness.
The ending is common in psychiatry to name various kinds of mental problems (megalomania, nymphomania) as is mania itself as a general term. For more details and examples, see the list below.
It is also used more loosely for an enthusiasm such that those showing it seem almost unbalanced; examples here include Beatlemania, balletomania, and Anglomania (excessive admiration of English customs). In this sense, the ending is frequently used in journalism to create words for short-term purposes, as in Euro-mania, enthusiasm for European integration regarded as excessive, or lotterymania, an extreme desire to take part in lotteries.
Someone exhibiting such characteristics, in either sense, can be described by a word ending in ‑maniac (dipsomaniac, megalomaniac, nymphomaniac), or, more rarely, by one ending in ‑mane, of which the only common example is balletomane.
Examples that seem to contain the ending through accidents of spelling include leishmania, a single-celled parasitic protozoan (from the proper name Leishman), and some names of countries: Romania, Tasmania.
Examples of words in -mania
Word origins are from Greek unless otherwise stated.
Beatlemania
frenzied enthusiasm for the 1960s pop group the Beatles
bibliomania
passionate enthusiasm for collecting and possessing books
biblion, book
egomania
obsessive egotism or self-centredness
Latin ego, I
erotomania
excessive sexual desire
erōs, erōt‑, sexual love
hypomania
a mild form of mania, marked by elation and hyperactivity
hupo, under
kleptomania
a recurrent urge to steal
kleptēs, thief
megalomania
obsession with the exercise of power, especially in the domination of others
megas, megal‑, great
metromania
a mania for writing poetry
metron, metre
monomania
exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for or preoccupation with one thing
monos, alone
nymphomania
uncontrollable or excessive sexual desire in a woman
Latin nympha, nymph
pyromania
an obsessive desire to set fire to things
pur, fire
trichotillomania
a compulsive desire to pull out one's hair
thrix, trikho‑, hair, plus tillesthai, to pull out
tulipomania
a craze for tulips, especially that in Holland in the seventeenth century
English tulip
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