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I am looking for a pejorative term to describe someone who constantly needs social interaction regardless of quality.
Something along the lines of "social nymphomaniac", but not necessarily gender-specific, and preferably in a single word. I would also prefer it if it were not colloquial.
I would call such a person intrusive, if I were limited to a single word. Some of the synonyms my thesaurus gives for intrusive are presumptuous, pushy, impertinent, officious, and forward. They're all pejorative. An officious person offers help, advice, or service where none is wanted. A presumptuous person presumes on a degree of familiarity or intimacy that isn't warranted by the actual relationship. Another word for forward in this sense is brash.
I was just editing a paper on schizophrenia and noticed that one of the symptoms of the disease is called asociality. Being asocial (lacking a strong motivation to engage in social interaction or preferring solitary activities) is not the same as being antisocial (active dislike or antagonism toward other people or the general social order).
One antonym for asocial is gregarious. To turn that into a pejorative, you can prefix hyper- or ultra-.
That'll give you:
hypersocial and hypergregarious
[M-W 3rd Unabridged says: "Main Entry: hyper- Function:prefix Etymology:alteration (influenced by Latin hyper-) of Middle English iper-, from Late Latin hyper-, from Latin, from Greek, from hyper (more at OVER)
1 : over : above : beyond : SUPER- hyperbarbarous, hyperemphasis
2 : overmuch : excessively : EXTRA- hypercritical, hypersensitive
3 a : excessive in extent or quality hyperesthesia, hyperemesis,]
as well as
ultrasocial and ultragregarious
[M-W 3rd Unabridged says: "Main Entry: ultra- Function: prefix Etymology: Latin, from ultra beyond (adverb & preposition), from abl. singular feminine of (assumed) ulter situated beyond (more at ULTERIOR)
3 : beyond what is common, ordinary, natural, right, proper, or moderate : excessively : exceedingly : HYPER- ultracomplex, ultracritical, ultraformal, ultramodern]
The problem with ultrasocial, however, is that Jonathan Heidt and others have approbatorily appropriated the term to describe human and animal ("social insects and colonial invertebrates") societies, because most people are social, not asocial or antisocial.
(#)Hypersocial and ultra-gregarious are associated with a neurological problem called Williams Syndrome# (#: see next paragraph), so using those terms is probably politically incorrect because it implies that the person they're used to describe is "crazy".
(#)"People with Williams Syndrome (caused by deletion of a certain region on chromosome 7) are hypersocial, ultra-gregarious; as children they fail to show a normal fear of adult strangers. WSers are cognitively impaired on most dimensions, but their verbal abilities are spared or even exaggerated; they often speak early, with complex sentences and large vocabulary, and excellent verbal recall, even if they can never learn to do basic arithmetic."
That leaves only hyper-gregarious, which is used in a medical book to describe one clinical symptom seen in some alcoholics.
Another possibility is to coin words like sociorrhea, sociorrheic, gregariorrhea, and gregariorrheic, using diarrhea and logorrhea as models, by adding the suffix -rrhea. Those two conditions are considered pretty obnoxious, I'd say, and are never used with positive connotations.
A little bit of imagination will take you a long way in the world of neologisms.
"Social addict", though 2 words, has the pejorativeness you're looking for, I believe.
I think social butterfly would fit most contexts perfectly well...
Someone who is VERY social and easygoing; can be either a male or a female. Usually these people don’t belong to a particular group, but rather jump from one group to another. They are somewhat accepted in all of them, but don’t really have any deep friendship connections in any of them.
...but if OP doesn't want a "colloquial" term, perhaps socialite would do...
A person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment.
Maybe ultrasociable will suit your needs. It's not at all colloquial, and any word that begins with ultra- is generally pejorative, like ultraconservative, ultraorthodox, and ultraliberal, because ultra- means extreme.
Bacchanalian (noun and adjective) or bacchic (adjective) might fit, but they are kind of restricted to drunken, orgiastic parties. Corybantic is another, but it implies wildness too.
Maybe "Serial Socializer"... as in someone who, like a Serial Murderer, can't stop from socializing to the point where he/she becomes a social pariah anywhere that person sets foot in.
I think familiar might also fit the bill. As in:
unduly intimate; too personal; taking liberties; presuming: The duchess disliked familiar servants.
Source: meaning #5 here.
