oniomania

Pronounced: oh-nee-uh-MAY-nee-uh (alt: oh-nee-uh-MAIN-yuh), noun

Notes: So, take your choice of five or six syllables; I would tend to use the first pronunciation (thus, six). We have another word for this that is more commonly used

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Yesterday’s word

The word synoptic means

• relating to a summary or general view of something
• covering a wide area (as weather conditions)
• taking a similar view (as the first three books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, and Luke)

First usage

This word came into English in the mid-1700s

Background / Comments

I knew that Matthew, Mark, and Luke were called the ‘synoptic gospels’, but even so, I was fuzzy about the exact meaning of synoptic… and I had certainly not heard of the weather-related definition. The work is Greek; it comes from syn- (together) combined with opsis (view)… this latter Greek word is no doubt the basis for optical, and optics, etc.