Balloonacy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An excessive mania for hot-air balloons. nonce-word, uncountable

    "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."

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

Blend of balloon + lunacy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.