oniomania (O-nee-uh-MAY-nee-uh, MAYN-yuh) noun

  Excessive, uncontrollable desire to buy things.

[From Latin, from Greek xnios, for sale, derivative of onos, price, + -mania.]

   "Usually, oniomania leads to financial problems, such as overspending on
   credit cards and bad credit ratings."
   Just Ask Us, Current Health 2 (Highland Park, IL), Mar 2, 2001.

Oniomania is another word for the urge to shop till you drop, habit of the
debit, thrill of the bill. According to a pearl of ancient wisdom, we don't
acquire things, things acquire us. In the case of oniomaniacs, it is perhaps
the fun of acquiring things that acquires them. Imelda Marcos of the
Philippines could be one prime example of this category, also known as
shopaholics, though she could be better known as a shoeaholic.

This week we'll look at some more uncommon words with common suffixes. -Anu

P.S. Come join us for an online chat with Richard Lederer later today.
He is the author of numerous books on wordplay, such as "Word Circus,"
"Crazy English" and "Anguished English." The topic of the chat is
"Play of Words." For more details: http://wordsmith.org/chat/lederer.html

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moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. -Dante Alighieri, poet (1265-1321)

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/oniomania.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/oniomania.ram