Meanings
- uncountableExcessive or unreasonable interest in parks, gardens, and landscaping.
For the Prussian Prince Pückler-Muskau, landscaping was an obsession — “Parkomania”— that led to bankruptcy.
2010 June 3, Karen Rosenburg, “Glories of Nature, Tamed by Man”, in New York Times, page Art Review - uncountableInterest in parks and gardens; a fashion for lawns and parks.
By the beginning of the 1900s, the popularity of lawn parks, sometimes referred to as “parkomania,” was widespread.
2008, Meg Greene, Rest in Peace: A History of American Cemeteries, page 471 more example
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.
1856, Andrew Jackson Downing, “Downing's letters”, in The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, page 75
Origin
From park + -o- + -mania. Attested since the nineteenth century.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
parkomania. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parkomania
“parkomania.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parkomania. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “parkomania,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parkomania.
Source: parkomania on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.