ˈmānēə sometimes -nyə noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin, from Greek mainesthai to be mad; akin to Greek menos spirit — more at mind
1. : excitement of psychotic proportions manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood ; specifically : the manic phase of manic-depressive psychosis
2.
a. : excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm : a violent desire, passion, or partiality : craze
has a mania for building and transforming — Arnold Bennett
seized by a mania for acquisition — Erico Verissimo
enamel vases, for which our middle classes so long had a mania — Albert Dasnoy
letters from citizens who had the mania of print — Winston Churchill
b. : something that is the object of a mania
prizefighting, horse racing, and dog racing are national manias — T.H.Fielding
demobilization became the mania of the day — Demaree Bess
Synonyms:
mania , delirium , frenzy , and hysteria denote in common a state of mind in which there is a loss of control over emotional, nervous, or mental processes. mania implies insanity, especially when manifested as the manic phase of manic-depressive psychosis. delirium implies cerebral excitement precipitated by toxic factors in disease or drugs or occurring in the course of a prolonged mental disorder and manifest in delusions, illusions, hallucinations, incoherence, and restlessness. frenzy usually applies to the physical symptoms of mania or any symptoms resembling them. hysteria is a functional psychic disorder simulating organic disease and is manifest in such physical symptoms as disturbances of sensation, motion, and visceral functions expressed typically as functional paralysis of a limb, nausea, emotional instability.
Synonym: see in addition insanity .