Megalomaniacal

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having an obsessive desire for power and control, combined with an exaggerated sense of one's own importance and abilities
2. Exhibiting an extreme obsession with power and authority, alongside a distorted self-image of greatness and capability
3. Characterized by a compulsive pursuit of dominance and superiority, paired with an inflated perception of one's own significance and skills

Etymology: "Megalomaniacal" is the adjective form of "megalomania," which was coined in the 1870s by the German psychiatrist Ernst Ludwig Ludwig? Not that; the verified history is different, so here is the accurate account. "Megalomania" was formed from Greek roots: "megalo-", from "megas," meaning "great" or "large," and "mania," meaning "madness" or "frenzied passion." The Greek "mania" is the source of the English word for a manic episode, so the compound literally names an obsession with greatness. The ancient Greeks themselves did not use it; it is a modern scientific construction built from classical parts, a common practice for naming conditions in nineteenth-century medicine. The adjective "megalomaniacal" follows the pattern of "maniacal," from "maniac," with the suffix "-al" added to the noun "megalomania." It entered English in the late nineteenth century, when psychiatric vocabulary of this kind was spreading through medical writing. The surprising detail is how plainly the word encodes its meaning: nothing in it is metaphorical, and it describes a grandiosity that psychiatrists took as a symptom rather than a personality trait.

Synonyms: delusional, grandiose

Antonyms: humble, modest