The easy picks:
- greed
- avarice
They get the message across, but are too general. I want a word that narrows the meaning to only gold — not just desire for wealth / material gain.
I tried a neologism:
aurumphelia
but google only turned up 7 results, leading me to conclude it’s too much of a stretch; it requires too much mental acrobatics to make sense of it.I could simply say "love of gold," but that would take away from the medical/psychology/academic/pompous tone of language I am going for. Though the word is to be used within a fictional setting, I want to maintain as much of an anchor to reality as possible (not just conjure up words willy nilly)
Intended sentence:
Doctor Sebastian has diagnosed these Dwarves as suffering from a
severe case of _______________.Question
Are there any existing words for this task, and if not, how would one construct a more intuitive neologism?
Answer
I suggest auromania.
Auromania: an obsession with looking for gold.
Example: Many poor unemployed young men in Middle Eastern countries are afflicted with auromania.
In your example:
Doctor Sebastian has diagnosed these Dwarves as suffering from a severe case of auromania.
Edit: You could also say chrysomania as pointed out by Toothrot.
Chryso- is a combining form which means gold and mania means craze, madness, desire, obsession etc.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Arash Howaida , Answer Author : Decapitated Soul