Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Late 20th century ·1984
Shopaholic
shop alcoholic
- Meaning
- A person who compulsively shops.
- Source words
- shop + alcoholic
- Coined by
- unknown
- Year
- 1984
Background
First recorded in US consumer-advice press. Sophie Kinsella's *Confessions of a Shopaholic* (2000) and its 2009 film adaptation pushed the word into global pop vocabulary.
Late 20th century
Marketing, media, and the early internet. Infomercial, emoticon, workaholic — the coinages name phenomena of mass media and white-collar life. Several predate the decades they're associated with.
Two words, one coinage.
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