dipsomania

noun

dip·​so·​ma·​nia ˌdip-sə-ˈmā-nē-ə 

-nyə

: an uncontrollable craving for alcoholic liquors

dipsomaniac

ˌdip-sə-ˈmā-nē-ˌak 

noun

dipsomaniacal

ˌdip-sō-mə-ˈnī-ə-kəl 

adjective

Examples of dipsomania in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So adding a hefty pour of ginger beer, some lime juice, and a dope copper mug to your vodka transforms your dipsomania into an actual weekend event. —Aaron Goldfarb, Esquire, 15 May 2015

While anxious weirdos were sprinting to the Piggly Wiggly to stock up on Wonder Bread and milk before the impending snowstorm hit, savvy folks focused more on their looming dipsomania. —Aaron Goldfarb, Esquire, 23 Jan. 2016

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from German Dipsomanie, from Greek dípsa "thirst" (of uncertain origin) + German -o- -o- + -manie -mania

Note: The German word was coined by the physician and writer Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836) in the preface to Ueber die Trunksucht und eine rationelle Heilmethode derselben (Berlin, 1819) by the Moscow physician C. von Brühl-Cramer. Hufeland intended the word as an approximate equivalent of German Trunksucht: "Er [Brühl-Cramer] zeigt, wie die böse Gewohnheit am Ende eine eigne Krankheit, die Trunksucht, hervorbringt, welche die meiste Analogie mit der Nymphomanie hat, und daher nicht unpassend nosologisch Dipsomanie genannt werden könnte …" ("He [Brühl-Cramer] shows how the bad habit produces in the end an actual disease, Trunksucht, which is most nearly comparable with nymphomania, and thus not unfittingly could be named nosologically dipsomania.")

First Known Use

circa 1844, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

dipsomania

noun

dip·​so·​ma·​nia ˌdip-sə-ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə 

: an uncontrollable craving for alcoholic liquors

dipsomaniac

-nē-ˌak 

noun

dipsomaniacal

ˌdip-sō-mə-ˈnī-ə-kəl 

adjective