Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Kleptomania
/ˌklɛptəˈmeɪniə/noun
A compulsion to steal things that are neither needed nor wanted.
The Greek roots
κλέπτης
kléptēs
thief
μανία
manía
madness, frenzy
Literally: “stealing madness”
The story of the word
French alienists needed a name for theft without motive. Matthey's klopemanie of 1816 was reshaped into kleptomanie by C. C. Marc in the 1830s, and English followed. The word claims the act is compulsion rather than gain, and courts were sceptical from the start, since the early defendants were mostly wealthy people caught in shops.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
kleptocracymaniapyromaniamegalomania
In a sentence
She had a drawer of stolen hotel pens and no explanation beyond kleptomania.