What does decalomania mean?

Answer 1

I have wondered about this term, "decalomania" myself. It has been used in my family for years. My father who was a German cabinetmaker used the term when purchasing decals for his New York factory. To add to the mystery of the origins of the word, none of our German relatives were familiar with decalomania. Prior to coming to this country my dad had lived in Argentina in the 1920's, perhaps that's where he learned this seemingly obscure term for a decal. I have a collection of old TV shows from the 50's and this evening I viewed an episode of Burns and Allen. Jack Benny was a guest. Jack claimed to be a Navy veteran and to prove it he showed a tattoo. Burns said Jack was only in the Navy for two days and that tattoo was only "decalomania" Burns, Benny and my dad were of the same generation and all had lived in New York in the same period, so it must have been a relatively common term in that era. I hope this helps the person asking the question. In doing a little further research, the spelling is decalcomania - note the "c" after the "l". It is a word of French origins. I will attempt to put the Wiki link to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decalcomania