An excessive or obsessive craving for alcohol; severe alcoholism treated as a mental health condition.
Compound of 'alcohol' (Arabic origin) and '-mania' (from Greek mania, meaning madness or obsession). This medical term emerged in the 19th century when doctors began classifying excessive drinking as a psychological disorder.
When this word was invented, 'mania' was how doctors described any obsessive behavior — they had 'megalomania' for power-seeking, 'pyromania' for fire-setting, and 'alcoholomania' for addiction, treating them all as mental illnesses rather than moral failures.
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