Word of the Day

: December 2, 2014

shopaholic

noun shah-puh-HAH-lik

What It Means

: one who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping

shopaholic in Context

Susie is such a shopaholic that her friends refuse to set foot in a mall with her when there are big sales.

"Uncle Sam is a shopaholic, the world's most prolific buyer of goods and services. Every year, the federal government spends between $350 billion and $500 billion on procurement." - editorial, The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), September 20, 2014

Did You Know?

The word alcoholic refers to someone who has a serious disorder. Addictive shopping can be serious, too, but the word shopaholic is most often used playfully to suggest mere excess rather than true addiction. Shopaholic first appeared in print in 1983. It was formed on the model of alcoholic, which was itself created many years earlier by combining alcohol with -ic, meaning "of or relating to." People evidently saw a parallel between someone addicted to alcohol and someone "addicted" to shopping. This is not the first time alcoholic has spawned a spinoff word-shopaholic was preceded by workaholic and chocoholic, both of which first turned up in 1968.