# Any dipsomaniacs around? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964 "2006-06-01T01:41:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/1 "2006-06-01T01:41:19Z")
When I was a young pup, we booze hounds were referred to as dipsomaniacs. Odd word that haven’t heard for years, replaced by “alcoholic,” I guess. Musing: If somebody addicted to alcohol is an alcoholic, why isn’t a tobacco addict called a “tobbacoic?” ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/2 "2006-06-01T12:49:32Z")
And of course we all know a shopaholic is addicted to shopahol. I’ve read the term “dipso,” but never heard anyone actually use it. Perhaps it’s time for a renaissance. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/3 "2006-06-01T13:21:28Z")
[QUOTE=KlondikeGeoff] When I was a young pup, we booze hounds were referred to as dipsomaniacs. Odd word that haven’t heard for years, replaced by “alcoholic,” I guess. Musing: If somebody addicted to alcohol is an alcoholic, why isn’t a tobacco addict called a “tobbacoic?” [/QUOTE] Wouldn’t that be ‘tobaccoholic’? The ending ‘-holic’ seems to have emerged to mean ‘person addicted to whatever the word it’s connected to is’. I never actually knew what a dipsomaniac was. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/4 "2006-06-01T13:25:55Z")
I’m a rageholic. I’m addicted to rageohol. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/5 "2006-06-01T13:31:01Z")
[I thought this thread was about gardening.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipsacus) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/6 "2006-06-01T16:19:08Z")
Not that it’s at all accurate, but to me for some reason “dipsomaniac” means someone in a far more advanced stage of alcoholism than “alcoholic”. When I think of a dipsomaniac, I think of someone about two drinks away from alcohol poisoning and death. I don’t know how I came to that shade of definition. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/7 "2006-06-01T16:27:20Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] Not that it’s at all accurate, but to me for some reason “dipsomaniac” means someone in a far more advanced stage of alcoholism than “alcoholic”. When I think of a dipsomaniac, I think of someone about two drinks away from alcohol poisoning and death. I don’t know how I came to that shade of definition. [/QUOTE] Well, it sounds more clinical, and I think your understanding of the word is shared by most people. What **Geoff** is referring to is the midcentury use of the word as a slang exaggeration for “heavy drinker.” ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/8 "2006-06-01T16:34:58Z")
[QUOTE=KlondikeGeoff] Musing: If somebody addicted to alcohol is an alcoholic, why isn’t a tobacco addict called a “tobbacoic?” [/QUOTE] If the substance in question is snuff, then dipsomaniac may still be the correct word to use. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/9 "2006-06-01T17:12:42Z")
[QUOTE=Plynck] If the substance in question is snuff, then dipsomaniac may still be the correct word to use. 😉 [/QUOTE] Now cut that out. Dipsomania comes from the combination of the Greek word for thirst, “dipsa”, and “mania” meaning excessive or unreasonable indugence in something. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/10 "2006-06-01T21:32:36Z")
If you want to talk cute lingo, in the movie Tunnel of Love, wife Doris Day asks husband Richard Widmark, who reeks of gin, “Did you fall into a juniper bush?” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/11 "2006-06-01T22:07:17Z")
I’ve used the term dipsomaniac a few times in the recent past, mostly in work e-mail chains that are a source of entertainment to coworkers and a creative outlet for me “At least there is one literate dipsomaniac among you,”) but grew weary of having to explain the definition. Now I save my four-bit words for the SMDB. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-dipsomaniacs-around/358964/12 "2006-06-01T22:15:25Z")
I’ll drink to that.