逼自己（也希望大家一起）學完韋氏字根詞典（16）——MANIA

03-02

MANIA in Latin means 「madness」 and the meaning passed over into English unchanged. （mania在拉丁語和英文中都是「madness」的意思）Our word mania can mean a mental illness, or at least an excessive enthusiasm. We might call someone a maniac who was wild, violent, and mentally ill—or maybe just really enthusiastic about something. Too much caffeine might make you a bit manic. But the intense mood swings once known as manic-depressive illness are now usually called bipolar disorder instead.

kleptomania A mental illness in which a person has a strong desire to steal things.

? Kleptomania leads its sufferers to steal items of little value that they dont need anyway.

Klepto- comes from the Greek word kleptein, 「to steal.」 Even though kleptomania is often the butt of jokes, its actually a serious mental illness, often associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Klepotomaniacs tend to be depressed, and many live lives of secret shame because theyre afraid to seek treatment.

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dipsomaniac A person with an extreme and uncontrollable desire for alcohol.

? She didnt like the word alcoholic being applied to her, and liked dipsomaniac even less.

Dipsomaniac comes from the Greek noun dipsa, 「thirst,」 but thirst usually has nothing to do with it. Some experts distinguish between an alcoholic and a dipsomaniac, reserving dipsomaniac for someone involved in frequent episodes of binge drinking and blackouts. In any case, there are plenty of less respectful words for a person of similar habits: sot, lush, wino, souse, boozer, guzzler, tippler, tosspot, drunkard, boozehound--the list goes on and on and on.

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megalomaniac A mental disorder marked by feelings of great personal power and importance.

? When the governor started calling for arming his National Guard with nuclear weapons, the voters finally realized they had elected a megalomaniac.

Since the Greek root megalo- means 「large,」 someone who is megalomaniacal has a mental disorder marked by feelings of personal grandeur. Megalomania has probably afflicted many rulers throughout history: The Roman emperor Caligula insisted that he be worshipped as a living god. Joseph Stalin suffered from the paranoia that often accompanies megalomania, and had thousands of his countrymen executed as a result. J.-B. Bokassa, dictator of a small and extremely poor African nation, proclaimed himself emperor of the country he renamed the Central African Empire. And even democratically elected leaders have often acquired huge egos as a result of public acclaim. But megalomaniac is generally thrown around as an insult and rarely refers to real mental illness.

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egomaniac Someone who is extremely self-centered and ignores the problems and concerns of others.

? Hes a completely unimpressive person, but that doesnt keep him from being an egomaniac.

Ego is Latin for 「I,」 and in English ego usually means 「sense of self-worth.」 Most peoples egos stay at a healthy level, but some become exaggerated. Egomaniacs may display a grandiose sense of self-importance, with fantasies about their own brilliance or beauty, intense envy of others, a lack of sympathy, and a need to be adored or feared. But, like megalomaniac, the word egomaniac is thrown around by lots of people who dont mean much more by it than blowhard or know-it-all.

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