hellenomania

Etymology

From Helleno- + -mania.

hellenomania means an obsession with the Greek culture, language, or people. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why “hellenomania” is a great word

HELLENOMANIA — [Noun] An excessive or obsessive enthusiasm for Greek culture, language, or people. From the combining form Helleno- (from Greek 'Hellēn', meaning "a Greek") and -mania (from Greek 'mania', meaning "madness, frenzy, enthusiasm"). Unlike philhellenism, which denotes a principled admiration for Greece, or classicism, which venerates a broad Greco-Roman artistic legacy, hellenomania is a pathological, consuming identification. It is the fevered reconstruction of Attic Greek in a provincial study, the silent tracing of Doric column fluting with a trembling finger, and the profound, aching sense of having been born millennia too late—a quiet grief for a homeland that was never truly one's own.

noun

An obsession with the Greek culture, language, or people.