fancy vs mania

fancy

noun
  • Love or amorous attachment. 

  • A diamond with a distinctive colour. 

  • The object of inclination or liking. 

  • In the game of jacks, a style of play involving additional actions (contrasted with plainsies). 

  • A whim. 

  • The imagination. 

  • A bite-sized sponge cake, with a layer of cream, covered in icing. 

  • The enthusiasts of such a pursuit. 

  • That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value. 

  • Any sport or hobby pursued by a group. 

  • An image or representation of anything formed in the mind. 

  • An opinion or notion formed without much reflection. 

adj
  • Of a superior grade. 

  • Unnecessarily complicated. 

  • Executed with skill. 

  • Decorative, or featuring decorations, especially intricate or diverse ones. 

adv
  • In a fancy manner; fancily. 

verb
  • To appreciate without jealousy or greed. 

  • To have a fancy for; to like; to be pleased with, particularly on account of external appearance or manners. 

  • would like 

  • To form a conception of; to portray in the mind. 

  • To breed (animals) as a hobby. 

  • To be sexually attracted to. 

  • To imagine, suppose. 

mania

noun
  • Excessive or unreasonable desire; insane passion affecting one or many people; fanaticism. 

  • Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. 

  • The state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels. 

  • Violent derangement of mind; madness; insanity. 

  • 2013-07-20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845 

How often have the words fancy and mania occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )