pageantitis en · NOUN
Etymology
From pageant + -itis.
Meanings
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(uncountable) An enthusiastic rise in the popularity of pageants.
In 1907 in Oxford a serious outbreak of an ‘affliction of the eye and mind known in professional circles as Pageantitis’ was vividly depicted in a satirical postcard.
2007 June 26, Deborah Sugg Ryan, “'Pageantitis': Frank Lascelles' 1907 Oxford Historical Pageant, Visual Spectacle and Popular Memory”, in Visual Culture in Britain, volume 8, number 2, Manchester University Press, pages 63–82:Pageantitis has reverted to an old form at the seaside watering places. Beauty shows have become quite a common attraction ....
1908 September 26, “Beauty Shows”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, volume LXXXVIII, number 2146, Shanghai, page 770:Aldershot has, in common with other places, had its little spasmodic attack of pageantitis. On the 9th and 10th inst., a grand military pageant and tattoo took place in the grounds of Government House.
1907 July 31, “2nd Battalion Notes”, in St. George's Gazette, volume XXV, number 295, London, page 107:The Kaiser has condescended to catch from us an attack of pageantitis, and it broke out in Alsace-Lorraine the other day, when his Imperial Majesty inaugurated, with mediæval pomp and circumstance, the restored Hohkönigsberg, near Schlettstadt, in Lower Alsace.
1908 May 27, “The Kaiser Catches Pageantitis”, in The Bystander, volume XVIII, number 234, London, page 439:"Madeline, can't you do something about the proliferation of pageants in these parts? Everywhere I look, a queen is springing up. Those wretched friends of yours! They must be stopped. What do you call them? Pageantitis? Pageantniks? Idiots, I say idiots!"
2007, Jane Tesh, A Hard Bargain: A Madeleine Maclin Mystery, Poisoned Pen Press, →ISBN, page 103: