This week’s theme
Words made by combining forms

This week’s words
neophilia
pyrophobia
arithmomania
zoolatry
cryptogenic

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-rith-muh-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: An obsessive preoccupation with numbers, calculations, and counting.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek arithmo- (number) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented use: 1892.

NOTES:

If you go for a bicycle ride and can’t help but determine the distance, time traveled, average speed, elevation gain, and more, chances are you have arithmomania. If you feel it necessary to count the number of steps in a staircase as you go up or down, chances are you have arithmomania. If you count the number of floors in buildings as you walk through a downtown area, arithmomania.

I only count the number of words in a dictionary.

Count von Count, a vampire Muppet on Sesame Street, has arithmomania. He counts run-of-the-mill things such as those mentioned above, but also bats in his castle. Apparently all vampires have arithmomania. One way to stop them is to spill grain around them. They have no choice but to count the grains, allowing you to escape.

Do you have arithmomania? How so? We’ll let you count the ways. Tell us about it below or by email words@wordsmith.org.

USAGE:

“Nikola Tesla was notorious for his compulsion to count items, especially in his later years. ... His arithmomania was an expression of what some modern psychologists believe to be his OCD.”
Amy M. O’Quinn; Nikola Tesla for Kids; Chicago Review Press; 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: