maniac

Forms

maniac m or n (feminine singular maniacă, masculine plural maniaci, feminine/neuter plural maniace)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French maniaque.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word is a learned borrowing from Late Latin maniacus, from Ancient Greek μανιακός (maniakós), the adjective of μανία (manía, “madness”).^[1] Scriban derives it from the Medieval Latin word, formed on mania.^[6] It belongs with manie, which also came from French.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dictionary record is Negulici's of 1848, which gives it as adjective and noun with Latin furiosus: furious, possessed, ruled by a mania.^[7] MDA2's first record is later, Ion Ghica's letters to Alecsandri (edition of 1887), in which „acel domn maniac” “that maniac gentleman” suddenly starts to weep and beat his head with his fists.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word still meant someone mad or possessed: Costinescu (1870) adds “having whims, a sort of madness”.^[8] The milder sense of a person with odd habits and moods is the main one in CADE (1931).^[9] Today the word names both a person suffering from a mania and, by extension, someone obsessed with a fixed idea or fussy about details, a tipicar.^[2][5] The rare adjective sense “relating to mania” has been taken over by maniacal, a French loan recorded from 1956.^[3][3]

Timeline

• 1848 – Negulici: furious, possessed, ruled by a mania.^[7]
• 1870 – Costinescu adds the sense “having whims”.^[8]
• 1875 – Antonescu renders it with French maniaque.^[10]
• 1887 – Ghica's letters, MDA2's first record.^[3][4]
• 1956 – maniacal.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Suffering from a mania; by extension, obsessed with a fixed idea or overly concerned with something, often with odd habits; fussy, pedantic: un colecționar maniac.^[2][3]
2. (rare) Relating to or typical of mania; maniacal.^[3][4]

Noun

1. A person who suffers from a mania or is obsessed with something; a maniac: E un maniac al ordinii.^[2][11]

Related words

• manie
• maniacal

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 616
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1428
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. maniac
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 772
7. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 67
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
10. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 171
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional