hectic

Etymology

From Middle English etik,^[1][2] borrowed from Old French etique (“consumptive”),^[2][3] from Late Latin hecticus,^[1][4] from Ancient Greek ἑκτικός (hektikós, “habitual; consumptive”),^[3][4] from Ancient Greek ἕξις (héxis, “habit, state of body or mind”),^[3][5] from ékhein “to have, hold”.^[4][2] The Latin h- was restored in English in the 16th century.^[2]

Greek physicians used the word of fevers rooted in the constitution of the body;^[2] in English it was applied especially to the wasting fevers of tuberculosis.^[2][1] The sense “full of disorganized activity” dates from 1904.^[2]

Adjective

hectic

1. Full of intense activity, excitement, or confusion.^[1][4][6][5]
2. (medicine) Of a fever: rising and falling during the day, as in tuberculosis; also, having such a fever.^[1][4][5]
3. Flushed, red.^[1][4]

Noun

hectic

1. A hectic fever, or the flush it produces.^[5]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. [1] [2] [3] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. [1] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House