bibliomaniac · noun — A person who is obsessed with owning books, especially valuable ones. It carries an Arena rating of 1580, earned across 64 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bibliomaniac ranks #540 of 17,165 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,544 of 17,201 for Funniest Words, #3,269 of 17,146 for Most Storied Words, #4,624 of 17,188 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
Why “bibliomaniac” is a great word
BIBLIOMANIAC — [Noun] A person afflicted by a compulsive, irrational passion for acquiring and possessing books, particularly rare or valuable editions, beyond any practical purpose. From the combining form biblio- (from Greek βιβλίον, biblion, "book") + -maniac (from Greek μανία, mania, "madness, frenzy"). Unlike a "bibliophile," whose affection is for the text and the artifact, or a systematic "collector," the bibliomaniac is driven by a pathological hunger for possession itself. It is the scent of foxed pages in a musty, overcrowded study, the frantic heartbeat at an auction as the gavel falls, and the sleepless anxiety over a pristine, unread first edition—a quiet madness measured in shelves, where the love of reading is suffocated by the terror of absence.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From biblio- + -maniac.
noun
- A person who is obsessed with owning books, especially valuable ones.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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