hectic

• hectick (obsolete)
• hectical (archaic)

From Middle English etik, ethik, 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, be in a certain state”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛktɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛktɪk
• Hyphenation: hec‧tic

hectic (comparative more hectic, superlative most hectic)

1. (figurative) Very busy with activity and confusion.

   Synonym: feverish

   The city center is so hectic at 8 in the morning that I go to work an hour beforehand to avoid the crowds

2. (obsolete) Denoting a type of fever accompanying consumption and similar wasting diseases, characterised by flushed cheeks and dry skin.

   hectic fever

3. (obsolete) Pertaining to or symptomatic of such a fever.
   • 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter VI, in Mary: A Fiction‎^[1]:

     Ann had a hectic cough, and many unfavourable prognostics […] .

   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     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 […] .

hectic (plural hectics) (obsolete)

1. A hectic fever.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 273:

     […] Do it England, / For like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, / And thou muſt cure me: […]

2. A flush like one produced by such a fever.
   • 1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 17:

     The poor Franciscan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass’d across his cheek, but could not tarry […]

   • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza 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

• “hectic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “hectic”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from French hectique.

hectic m or n (feminine singular hectică, masculine plural hectici, feminine and neuter plural hectice)

1. hectic