-mania 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 Beatlesbibliomania, 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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