hectic
/ˈhɛktɪk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.33 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Denoting a type of fever accompanying consumption and similar wasting diseases, characterised by flushed cheeks and dry skin.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "The city center is so hectic at 8 in the morning that I go to work an hour beforehand to avoid the crowds"
- "Phoenix:It must have been too hectic that night to clean up."
- "hectic fever"
- "Ann had a hectic cough, and many unfavourable prognostics […]."
- "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 […]."
- "[…] Do it England, / For like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, / And thou muſt cure me: […]"
Etymology
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *seǵʰ-, etik, etique, *hecticus, ἑκτικός
Usage
Inflected Forms
more hectic (comparative)
most hectic (superlative)
hectick (alternative, obsolete)
hectical (alternative, archaic)
hectics (plural)