A person who works excessively and compulsively, often at the expense of rest, relationships, and health.
A blend of 'work' and 'alcoholic,' coined in the 1970s by psychologist Wayne Oates. The parallel structure intentionally compares work addiction to substance addiction.
The term 'workaholic' is only about 50 years old, which shows how recently our culture started recognizing that work addiction was a real problem—before the 1970s, working yourself to exhaustion was just seen as noble ambition rather than a psychological disorder.
Term stigmatizes work dedication but applies asymmetrically: men's overwork coded as ambition/success; women's overwork coded as neurotic compulsion. Gendered double standard in interpretation.
Apply term consistently across genders or use 'overwork,' 'burnout,' 'work-driven' to avoid moralizing language that differs by gender.
["overworked","driven by work","experiencing burnout","work-focused"]
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