collectionitis
English
Etymology
From collection + -itis. Compare French collectionnite.
Noun
collectionitis (uncountable)
- An obsessive desire to collect things; collectomania.
- 1944, Douglas & Elizabeth Rigby, Lock, Stock and Barrel, page 317:
- His answer was one which, with appropriate variations, might have been given by any one of those who, like himself, have been willing sufferers from some form of collectionitis.
- 1960, Harper's Magazine, vol. 220:
- Collectionitis strikes in the most unexpected quarters: it has metamorphosed a butcher into an expert on ancient porcelain and a cab driver into an Orientalist.
- 2001, Liz Nash, translating Philippe Rouet, Approaches to the study of Attic vases: Beazley and Pottier, p. 33:
- With his passion for collecting, Hartwig had formed a habit that is peculiar to those who suffer from ‘collectionitis’: the belief that he alone had the right to talk about a vase that he owned, even after he had parted with it.
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