hectic

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French etique, from Medieval Latin *hecticus, from Ancient Greek ἑκτικός (hektikós, “habitual, hectic, consumptive”), from ἕξις (héxis, “a state or habit of body or of mind, condition”), from ἔχειν (ékhein, “to have, hold, intransitive be in a certain state”).

Adjective

hectic (comparative more hectic, superlative most hectic)

  1. (obsolete) Pertaining to bodily reactions characterised by flushed or dry skin.
    hectic fever; a hectic patient
    • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 3, chapter 1
      She never complained, but sleep and appetite fled from her, a slow fever preyed on her veins, her colour was hectic, and she often wept in secret [...]
  2. Very busy with activity and confusion; feverish.
    The city center is so hectic at 8 in the morning that I go to work an hour beforehand to avoid the crowds

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

hectic (plural hectics)

  1. (obsolete) A hectic fever.
  2. (obsolete) A flush like one produced by such a fever.
    • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.147:
      For still he lay, and on his thin worn cheek / A purple hectic played like dying day / On the snow-tops of distant hills […]
    • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
      an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief

Further reading

  • hectic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • hectic in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
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