hectic

英文词源

hectic

hectic: [14] The use of hectic for referring to ‘great haste or confusion’ is a surprisingly recent development, not recorded before the first decade of the 20th century. It originally meant in English ‘suffering from fever, particularly of the sort that characterizes tuberculosis or septicaemia’ (the metaphorical progression to ‘feverishly active’ is an obvious one). English acquired the word via Old French etique and late Latin hecticus from Greek hektikós, which meant literally ‘habitual’, and hence ‘suffering from a habitual or recurrent fever, consumptive’.

It was a derivative of héxis ‘condition, habit’, which in turn was formed from the verb ékhein ‘hold, be in a particular condition’, which has also given English epoch. (The original English form of the word was etik; hectic represents a 16th-century return to the Latin form.)

hectic (adj.)

late 14c., etik (in fever etik), from Old French etique "consumptive," from Late Latin hecticus, from Greek hektikos "continuous, habitual, consumptive" (of a disease, because of the constant fever), from hexis "a habit (of mind or body)," from ekhein "have, hold, continue" (see scheme).

The Latin -h- was restored in English 16c. Sense of "feverishly exciting, full of disorganized activity" first recorded 1904, but hectic also was used in Middle English as a noun meaning "feverish desire, consuming passion" (early 15c.). Hectic fevers are characterized by rapid pulse, among other symptoms. Related: Hecticness.