melomaniac

/ˌmɛlə(ʊ)ˈmeɪnɪak/

Etymology

From melo- (prefix meaning “music”) (from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “song; melody, tune”)) + -maniac (from French maniaque, from Late Latin maniacus, from Ancient Greek μανιακός (maniakós), an adjectival form of μανία (manía, “madness; mad desire, compulsion”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”)).

Why this word is great

MELOMANIAC — [Noun] One with an abnormal fondness for music; a person who loves music to the point of obsession. From melo- (prefix meaning “music”) (from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “song; melody, tune”)) + -maniac (from French maniaque, from Late Latin maniacus, from Ancient Greek μανιακός (maniakós), an adjectival form of μανία (manía, “madness; mad desire, compulsion”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”)). Unlike "musicophile" (which suggests a gentle appreciation) or "audiophile" (which fixates on technical perfection), "melomaniac" evokes a feverish devotion—music not as pleasure but as vital sustenance. It is the neighbor who plays the same symphony at full volume for weeks, the subway busker who forgets to eat, the solitary listener who weeps at a chord change as if it were a personal revelation. To love music this much is to court madness, to hear the world singing even when it is silent.

noun

One with an abnormal fondness of music; a person who loves music.“He then amused himself with the fiddle—tried the French horn for a season, varying the matter by a few lessons upon the clarionet and hautboy, and finally improving his powers of endurance by a little practising of the Kent bugle. He at length became a perfect melomaniac, and was always in danger of being indicted as a nuisance by his less scientific neighbours, whose ears were doomed to suffer bo”