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Etymology edit

dipso- +‎ -maniac

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Noun edit

dipsomaniac (plural dipsomaniacs)

  1. One with a morbid paroxysmal craving for alcohol; an alcoholic.
    • 1909, G. K. Chesterton, “The Progressive”, in George Bernard Shaw[1], New York: John Lane, page 54:
      The dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink.
    • 1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, published 2001, Part Two, Chapter 2:
      The Spaniards are nice, but, of course, most of them are terribly poor, the ones who aren’t are impossible, I don’t like the tourists, mainly English and American dipsomaniacs, paid, my dear, by their families to stay away.
  2. A persistently drunken person; a drunkard.

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