bibliomania

American  

[bib-lee-oh-mey-nee-uh, -meyn-yuh] / ˌbɪb li oʊˈmeɪ ni ə, -ˈmeɪn yə /

noun

1. excessive fondness for acquiring and possessing books.

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bibliomania British  

/ ˌbɪblɪəʊˈmeɪnɪə /

noun

1. extreme fondness for books

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Other Word Forms

• bibliomaniac noun
• bibliomaniacal adjective

Etymology

Origin of bibliomania

1725–35; biblio- + -mania; replacing earlier bibliomanie < French

Explanation

Bibliomania is an extreme passion for books. If you spend all of your paychecks buying first edition novels, you can say you suffer from bibliomania. The word bibliomania, inspired by the French bibliomanie, combines the Greek roots biblio, "book," and mania, "madness" or "frenzy." If you love books as physical objects, and you collect them furiously or compulsively, that's bibliomania. Merely loving to read might instead be called bibliophilia, with philia meaning "fondness" or "love." If your bibliomania interferes with your life, it might even be categorized as a hording disorder.

Example Sentences

Mattis, who prefers the nickname “Warrior Monk” to “Mad Dog,” repeatedly leans on his bibliomania throughout his 300-page book.

From Washington Post • Sep. 4, 2019

If we can extend the image of “nightstand” to include the floor and the chest of drawers across the room, we might be approaching my unfortunate bibliomania and occasional trashophilia.

From New York Times • Mar. 8, 2018

I bought with a hunger that I recognise, looking back, was a kind of neediness: well, bibliomania is a known condition.

From The Guardian • Jun. 29, 2012

The doctor believed in bibliomania and was sure that prices would rise indefinitely as the supply of available rare books decreased.

From Time Magazine Archive

For more than a decade, and until he became enamoured of books and bibliomania, Field was the most widely quoted political paragrapher in America.

From Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 2 by Thompson, Slason