What does dipsomaniac mean?
A dipsomaniac is a person with an overwhelming, uncontrollable craving for alcohol — someone whose drinking is driven by compulsion rather than casual habit. The word derives from Greek roots meaning 'thirst' and 'madness', reflecting its origin in nineteenth-century medicine, when doctors treated dipsomania as a distinct form of insanity marked by sudden, irresistible bouts of drinking. In that era, being labeled a dipsomaniac carried both diagnostic and moral weight: physicians saw it as a disease, while society often read it as weakness or vice. Today the term has largely fallen out of clinical use, replaced by 'alcoholism' and 'alcohol use disorder', and survives mainly in literature, historical writing, and deliberate archaism. Calling someone a dipsomaniac sounds formal and somewhat old-fashioned, with strongly negative connotations. Its vivid etymology and colorful history nonetheless make it a striking alternative to blander modern terms for habitual drunkenness.
nounA person with an uncontrollable, compulsive craving for alcohol; someone suffering from dipsomania.
- A person who has an irresistible, compulsive craving for alcoholic drink; one suffering from dipsomania.
- (Historical/clinical) In 19th-century medicine, a patient diagnosed with dipsomania as a specific form of insanity characterized by periodic bouts of excessive drinking.
"By his forties he had become a hopeless dipsomaniac, drinking from the moment he woke until he passed out each night."
"The novel's protagonist is portrayed not as a villain but as a tragic dipsomaniac destroyed by his craving for drink."
"Victorian physicians classified him as a dipsomaniac, treating his drinking binges as episodes of a diagnosable madness rather than mere vice."
Standard English plural, formed regularly with -s.
"The asylum's records listed several patients admitted as chronic dipsomaniacs."
'Dipsomania' literally means 'thirst-madness' in Greek — and it was once considered a distinct disease, separate from ordinary drunkenness, by 19th-century doctors.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dipsomaniac
Dipsomaniac comes from the Greek 'dipsa' meaning thirst and 'mania' meaning madness or frenzy, combined through the New Latin medical coinage 'dipsomania'. The term entered English in the mid-nineteenth century, when physicians used it to name what they regarded as a specific pathological craving for drink. It shares the Greek root 'dipsa' with 'polydipsia', the medical term for excessive thirst, and belongs to the same family of '-mania' compounds as 'kleptomania' and 'pyromania'.
Related word forms
How dipsomaniac is actually used
Dipsomaniac is now largely dated or literary in register; modern clinical and everyday usage favors 'alcoholic' or 'person with alcohol use disorder'. It can sound quaint, formal, or deliberately archaic, and carries strong negative connotations. The related term 'dipsomania' is similarly historical.
Easily confused with dipsomaniac
A dipsomaniac is characterized specifically by uncontrollable episodic cravings for drink (dipsomania), an older clinical term, whereas 'alcoholic' is the modern general term for alcohol dependence of any pattern.
A kleptomaniac has a compulsive urge to steal; only the shared '-maniac' suffix links it to dipsomaniac.