parkomania

English

Etymology

From park +‎ -o- +‎ -mania. Attested since the nineteenth century.

Pronunciation

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Noun

parkomania (uncountable)

1. Excessive or unreasonable interest in parks, gardens, and landscaping.
   • 2010 June 3, Karen Rosenburg, “Glories of Nature, Tamed by Man”, in New York Times‎^[1], page Art Review:

     For the Prussian Prince Pückler-Muskau, landscaping was an obsession — “Parkomania”— that led to bankruptcy.

2. Interest in parks and gardens; a fashion for lawns and parks.
   • 1856, Andrew Jackson Downing, “Downing's letters”, in The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste‎^[2], page 75:

     He is just about sailing for Europe, with all his family, for a two years’ tour, and with Parkomania especially in his mind. There is no man of all my acquaintance so thoroughly prepared to see and enjoy the finest English places. Rare trees are his special hobby.

   • 2008, Meg Greene, Rest in Peace: A History of American Cemeteries‎^[3], page 47:

     By the beginning of the 1900s, the popularity of lawn parks, sometimes referred to as “parkomania,” was widespread.