A.Word.A.Day --uranomania

A.Word.A.Day

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Sep 5, 2025

This week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

This week’s words
theomachy
kleptocrat
thanatophobia
euryphagous
uranomania

Caligula Indulging in the Worship of the People, 1877

Art: Émile Lévy

According to Wikipedia, Roman emperor Caligula (12-41 CE) became “increasingly self-indulgent, cruel, sadistic, extravagant and sexually perverted thereafter, an insane, murderous tyrant who demanded and received worship as a living god, humiliated the Senate, and planned to make his horse a consul.”

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

uranomania

PRONUNCIATION:

(yoor-uh-no-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: The delusion that one is of divine origin.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek urano- (heavens) + -mania (obsession). Earliest documented use: 1890.

NOTES:

As Carl Sagan reminded us, “We are made of star-stuff.” True, but best not to let that go to one’s head. After all, so are turnips and tapeworms. Being cosmic doesn’t automatically make one a big star.

USAGE:

“Common sense might have preserved him. ... Instead was a derangement, clinically known as uranomania. A dwarf fancied himself divine.”
Edgar Saltus; The Imperial Orgy; Modern Library; 1920.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -John Cage, composer (5 Sep 1912-1992)

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