Word of the Day for Friday, November 25, 2011
dipsomania \dip-suh-MEY-nee-uh\, noun:
An irresistible, typically periodic craving for alcoholic drink.
During his last years he'd become a regular drinking companion of Roosevelt's younger brother, Elliot, whose life was also ended by dipsomania some years later.
-- Caleb Carr, The Alienist
What exactly has Mr. Waugh in mind, one would like to know, in making the perhaps too charming young man a dipsomania? Is it no more than that, being himself an unsatisfactory Roman Catholic, Sebastian lacked the will to resist drink?
-- Martin Stannard, Evelyn Waugh: The Critical Heritage
Dipsomania literally means crazy thirst from the Greek dips (thirst) and mania (crazy).
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