phreneticus

Forms

phrenēticus (feminine phrenētica, neuter phrenēticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek φρενιτικός (phrenitikós, “delirious”),^[2][1] altered from ⟨phrenīticus⟩, a spelling also found.^[1][3] The Greek adjective is formed from φρενῖτις (phrenîtis, “delirium”), from φρήν (phrḗn, “mind; diaphragm”).^[1][4] Ancient explanations differ: Isidore derived it from frendō (“to gnash the teeth”), because madmen grind their teeth, while a passage that Dionysius Exiguus translated from Gregory of Nyssa explains that physicians named the illness after the membranes of the brain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro,^[6] whose Menippean Satires apply it to winds that rage as if mad.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In verse it occurs only in Varro, Martial and Prosper; in prose it is found from Cicero on, five times in Celsus, and most often in Augustine and the physician Caelius Aurelianus.^[5] Cicero uses it in the De divinatione of the delirious, and Celsus writes that some of the delirious are cheerful and others sad.^[3][5] It was often used as a noun for a madman.^[2][5] Gregory the Great notes that medicine calls a man out of his mind by this Greek word.^[5] It lives on in Italian farnetico,^[5] and through Old French ⟨frenetike⟩ it gave English frenetic, of which frantic is an unexplained variant.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of raging winds.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the De divinatione.^[3][5][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of delirious patients.^[3][5][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it often.^[5][6]
• mid-14th century – English frantic is recorded, a variant of frenetic.^[4]
• late 14th century – English frenetic is recorded, from Old French.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Suffering from madness, delirious, frantic.^[2][3][7]
2. (transferred) Raging, as if mad.^[3]

Noun

1. A madman, a delirious patient.^[2][5]

Related words

• English frenetic
• English frantic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson