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My goal is pretty much simple nonetheless challenging; I'm going to try and find as many English words as possible that are Greek. Challenge accepted. And trust me, there's a lot of them.


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

...mania, Megalomania, Kleptomania, Egomania, Nymphomania.



Mania. From Ancient Greek μανία, mania, madness. Violent derangement of mind, insanity, insane passion affecting one or many people.

Derived or related words: maniac, manic.

The word mania is used in a lot of words as a suffix. A few examples are:



Megalomania. From Greek μεγαλομανία, megalomania, from μεγάλος, megalos, big + μανία, mania, madness. A psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.




Kleptomania. From Greek κλεπτομανία, kleptomania, from κλέπτω, klepto, steal + μανία, mania, madness. Obsession of stealing.





Egomania. From Greek εγωμανία, egomania, from ego + μανία, mania, madness. Obsession with someone's own (supposed) importance.





Nymphomania. From Ancient Greek νυμφομανία, nymphomania, from νύμφη, nymph (in Greek mythology a nymph was a minor deity represented as beautiful maiden) + μανία, mania, madness. A neurotic condition in women in which the symptoms are a compulsion to have sexual intercourse with as many men as possible and an inability to have lasting relationships with them.               
                           

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