balloonacy
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Blend of balloon + lunacy.[1]
Noun
[edit]balloonacy (uncountable)
- (nonce word) An excessive mania for hot-air balloons.
- 1864 February 20, The Daily Telegraph:
- We live in an age of balloonacy. Only a few weeks ago I sent you the account of M. Nadar and his 'Géant,” “the greatest balloon in the world;” now M. Eugène Godard has built an 'Aigle,' by the side of which the 'Giant' is a mere dwarf.
- 1865, Charles Robert Leslie, Tom Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, page 479:
- Horace Walpole was severe on this new whimsy of balloonacy, which was only chilled, not extinguished, by De Rosière's catastrophe.
- 1975, Machine Design, volume 47, numbers 24-29, page 20:
- In the milder case of "balloonacy" the enthusiast proposes essentially a modernized Hindenburg (8 million cu ft). In the most virulent form of the disease, however, the victim calls for fleets of 100 million cu ft helium whales.
References
[edit]- ^ Olga Kornienko, Grinin L, Ilyin I, Herrmann P, Korotayev A (2016) “Social and Economic Background of Blending”, in Globalistics and Globalization Studies: Global Transformations and Global Future[1], Volgograd: Uchitel Publishing House, →ISBN, pages 220–225