Schwärmerein.

1845 Edinb. Rev. 82 453 His [sc. Lessing's] mind is both clear and strong, free from schwärmerei, (a word untranslatable, because the thing itself is un-English,) free from cant and affectation of all kinds.

1857 G. H. Lewes Biogr. Hist. Philos. (ed. 2) ii. 531 Kant's..energetic contempt for Swedenborgianism and all other Schwärmerei is unequivocally expressed.

1863 Crown Princess of Prussia Let. 21 Mar. in Dearest Mama (1968) 183 I did wrong in allowing my feelings vent in writing to you about England; I thought afterwards it would bore you and my ‘schwarmerei’ would make you impatient.

1880 G. Gissing Workers in Dawn I. xii. 261 He has no belief whatever in the heroic woman, laughing to scorn women's rights, and speaking almost as disrespectfully of that schwärmerei of which you are yourself such an exalted instance.

1886 Athenæum 3 Apr. 451/3 A few hours' schwärmerei over what Joan [of Arc] must have felt under certain circumstances.

1927 F. B. Young Portrait of Clare i. vi. 63 The expression of liberty and exultant youth that her mother's mid-Victorian fantasias and Miss Boldmere's Schwärmerei denied her.

1927 N. Royde-Smith John Fanning's Legacy xxix All her old ‘schwärmerei’ for Paula Ochs revived.

1930 E. Scott Forgotten Image xiii. 98 Her idiotic, schoolgirlish schwärmerei attachment.

1937 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 May 358/2 It would be easy to dismiss her account of how she ‘read Schopenhauer and was blissfully happy’ as the Schwärmerei of a pretentious blue-stocking.

1958 Observer 26 Jan. 16/6 Philhellenism, when it is not a mere student Schwärmerei, may sometimes develop along much the same lines as a certain type of love affair.

1971 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Apr. 470/1 There were two Watts sisters, the husband of one of them and a young son for whom Swinburne had at one time a schwärmerei.

1976 W. Gérin E. Gaskell x. 92 Mr. Gaskell shielded himself as best he could from the Miss Winkworths' schwärmerei.