In reading about the Russian mobster who said that the olympic pairs and ice dance results were fixed, I found that the French called him a mythomaniac--meaning one who has a compulsion to exaggerate or to invent things. I love that word! I have known a few mythomaniacs!
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of such words. Many of them are used only by doctors and psychologists to describe clinical conditions.
Possibly two of the best known examples are: pyromaniac, describing someone with the irresistible urge to start fires; and nymphomaniac, describing a woman who, if she were a man, would be looked upon as completely normal.
Here's a lovely word with a rather repugnant meaning. It means "habitual or obsessive nose-picking".
This word had its fifteen minutes of fame at the Ig Nobel awards at Harvard University in October 2001. The award in the Public Health category went to two Indian researchers for "their probing medical discovery that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents" as published in a paper called A Preliminary Survey of Rhinotillexomania in an Adolescent Sample.
Rhinotillexomania looks like an example of word invention for its own sake, but it has appeared a few times in scientific publications. The word seems to have been coined in imitation of trichotillomania, an medical term for a compulsive desire to pull out one's hair.
quote:Seems to have some linguistic connection with satire.
Dictionary.com seems rather vague on this. Both The American Heritage Dictionary and Webster's say that it comes from the Latin satira, satire. That word in turn came from satura, a plate full of fruit. satur means full, from which we get our word "sated". The American Heritage Dictionary says "influenced by Greek satur, satyr, and saturos, burlesque of a mythical episode"
In trying to find some more fun mania words, I realized that someone should also start a phobia thread because there are also some great phobia words--like fear of Friday the 13th, or my favorite, fear of virgins! I'll let someone else start that thread because I have become somewhat of a thread hog; is there a word for that? (perhaps philodox--one who loves his/her own opinions!)
Getting off the track here! I found a good mania word: parateresiomania obsession with being a voyeur.
Oniomania - compulsive shopping. It's not really an addiction, neither is it agreed that it's an obsessive disorder or an impulse-control problem.... The Dictionary for Difficult Words defines it as "a mania for making purchases".
Ahhh---Now that wouldn't be such a bad mania to have!
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seems to have some linguistic connection with satire. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dictionary.com seems rather vague on this. Both The American Heritage Dictionary and Webster's say that it comes from the Latin satira, satire. That word in turn came from satura, a plate full of fruit. satur means full, from which we get our word "sated". The American Heritage Dictionary says "influenced by Greek satur, satyr, and saturos, burlesque of a mythical episode"
My Greek etymological Dictionary says that satire and satyr do not share the same root. 'Satire', as Arnie mentioned, comes from the Latin 'satur' (full), while 'satyr' is a reference to the Greek mythological hooved, horned and horny creature, which was a follower of Dionysus.
Thank you, muse. Over the weekend I'll go to the library and take a look at OED. If it doesn't match you, my money is on you, and you can have the credit for our first "correction to OED".
satur means full, from which we get our word "sated". The American Heritage Dictionary says "influenced by Greek satur, satyr, and saturos, burlesque of a mythical episode"
