hectic

Meanings

1. Very busy with activity and confusion.
2. Denoting a type of fever accompanying consumption and similar wasting diseases, characterised by flushed cheeks and dry skin.
3. Pertaining to or symptomatic of such a fever.

1. A hectic fever.
2. A flush like one produced by such a fever.

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”).