tulipomania

American  

[too-luh-puh-mey-nee-uh, -meyn-yuh] / ˌtu lə pəˈmeɪ ni ə, -ˈmeɪn yə /

noun

1. (in 17th-century Holland) a widespread obsession with tulips, especially of highly prized varieties, as those of a streaked, variegated, or unusual color.

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Etymology

Origin of tulipomania

First recorded in 1700–10; tulip + -o- + -mania

Example Sentences

References to tulipomania have been appearing from time to time, but widespread fear that we might already be immersed in a speculative orgy is simply not evident.

From New York Times • Sep. 15, 2017

You have until tomorrow for Stan's Café's The Just Price of Flowers, a clever Brechtian take on tulipomania, at the AE Harris Factory in Birmingham.

From The Guardian • Jun. 29, 2012

Most of the gory details of the real estate and dot-com bubbles are widely known; ditto for the Dutch tulipomania, despite the fact that it occurred four centuries ago.

From Forbes • Feb. 25, 2010

The government was unable to control the resulting speculation, which threatened the economy before tulipomania, as it became known, died down.

From Time Magazine Archive

I, the Mississippi scheme, the South Sea bubble, the tulipomania, the alchymists, modern prophecies, fortune-telling, the magnetisers, influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard.

From Introduction to the Science of Sociology by Park, Robert Ezra