Oniomaniac

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌəʊnɪ.əʊˈmeɪnɪ.ak/

Definitions

1. An individual who possesses a compulsive fixation on shopping excessively
2. A person characterized by an uncontrollable urge to engage in frequent and excessive purchasing behaviors
3. A person who cannot resist the overwhelming desire to buy things in an excessive and uncontrollable manner

Etymology: "Oniomaniac" is a formation built from Greek parts, and the most useful fact about it is its literal meaning: "for sale" plus "madness." The first element comes from the Ancient Greek "ṓnios," meaning "for sale" or "purchasable," a word tied to the idea of buying, while the second element is the familiar "-maniac," from the Greek "mania," frenzy or madness, which English has long used for obsessive enthusiasms. The noun is a derivative of "oniomania," the older term for the compulsion itself, and the "-iac" ending simply turns the condition into a label for the person who suffers from it. Put together, the word describes someone whose madness is buying. The construction is deliberately clinical, the sort of coinage that medical and psychological writers produced by combining classical roots when they wanted a precise name for a behaviour.