μανιακός

Forms

μᾰνῐᾰκός (maniakós) m (feminine μᾰνῐᾰκή, neuter μᾰνῐᾰκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek μανία (manía), “madness”, with the suffix -ακός (-akós).^[1] Kriaras explains it instead as a remodelling of the older adjective from Ancient Greek μανικός (manikós), “mad”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is not found in classical texts.^[3] LSJ knows it only from the bilingual glossaries, where it is explained as μαινόμενος, “raving”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The classical adjective for “mad” was μανικός, used by Aristophanes, Plato and the Hippocratic writers.^[3] Triantafyllidis dates μανιακός to Hellenistic Greek; in Byzantine Greek Wiktionary records it in the sense “causing madness”.^[5][1] The medieval vernacular used it of a frenzied or passionate person, and the neuter τὸ μανιακόν as a noun meaning madness.^[2]

It survives as μανιακός (maniakós), for a person obsessed with something and, in psychiatry, one who suffers from mania.^[5][6] The second use is learned, and the Χρηστικό Λεξικό names French maniaque and English maniac as its models.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Hellenistic period – Triantafyllidis dates the word to Hellenistic Greek.^[5]
• Byzantine period – It is used in the sense “causing madness”.^[1]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular romances use it of a frenzied lover, and the neuter for madness.^[2]
• Modern Greek – It means obsessed, or suffering from mania.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Raving, mad.^[3][4]
2. (Byzantine) Causing insanity.^[1]
3. (medieval) Frenzied, passionate; the neuter as a noun, madness.^[2]

Related words

• μανία (manía)
• μανικός (manikós)
• μαίνομαι (maínomai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
3. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
5. ^ a b c d e Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
6. ^ a b c Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens