an extreme enthusiasm for growing and collecting tulips
tulipomania in American English
(ˌtuːləpəˈmeiniə, -ˈmeinjə)
noun
(in 17th-century Holland)
a widespread obsession with tulips, esp. of highly prized varieties, as those of a streaked, variegated, or unusual color
Word origin
[1700–10; tulip + -o- + -mania]This word is first recorded in the period 1700–10. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: camera, cirrus, emphatic, marquise, sliding scale-o- is the typical ending of the first element of compounds of Greek origin (as -i- is, in compounds of Latin origin), used regularly in forming new compounds with elementsof Greek origin and often used in English as a connective irrespective of etymology(Franco-Italian; geography; seriocomic; speedometer)