The word workaholic is usually credited to Wayne Oates, an American professor of the psychology of religion and pastoral care. He used it in a 1968 article, “On Being a ‘Workaholic’,” and in his book Confessions of a Workaholic, copyright 1970.
The word is older. In 1947 the Toronto Daily Star joked about a group called Workaholics Synonymous. The Thomasville Times-Enterprise used workaholic in 1962. In 1983 a corporate financial planner and a schoolteacher in New York formed Workaholics Anonymous, a twelve-step fellowship.