hectic, a. and n.
(ˈhɛktɪk)
Forms: α. 5 etik(e, 5–6 etyk(e, 6 eticke, ethyke, hetique. β. 7 hecticke, -ique, 7–8 hectick, 7– hectic.
[ad. (through Fr.) late L. hectic-us, a. Gr. ἑκτικός habitual, hectic, consumptive, f. ἕξις habit, state of body or mind. The earlier forms etik, etc., were a. OF. étique (13th c. in Littré) = It., Sp. etico, Romanic forms from hectic-us; the later agree with F. hectique (Paré, 16th c.).]
A. adj.
1. a. Belonging to or symptomatic of the bodily condition or habit: applied to that kind of fever which accompanies consumption or other wasting diseases, and is attended with flushed cheeks and hot dry skin.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xxxv. (1495) 248 The feuer etyk hurtyth and greuyth the sadde membres. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 103 a, In consumyng agues which ar called hectice. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xlix. 71 Such as are fallen into Consumtions and Feuer Hetiques. 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Hecticke, inflaming the hart, and soundest parts of the bodie. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Ectique, Thence is a feuer called Hecticke, when it hath possessed all parts of the bodie, without any alteration in it selfe. 1719 Quincy Phys. Dict., Hectick..it is only joined to that kind of Fever which is slow and continual, and ending in a Consumption. 1807–26 S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 34 Hectic fever is more or less remittent, but never wholly intermittent. |
b. Belonging to or symptomatic of this fever.
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 541 No hectique disposition upon the body so sapes away the strength thereof. 1651 Davenant Gondibert ii. v. (R.) The hectick heate Of Oswald's blood doubled their pulses pace. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 923 All the rose to one small spot withdrew: They call'd it hectic; 'twas a fiery flush. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic xiii. (1833) 326 This action on the lungs..oppresses them with a hectic cough. 1885 Edna Lyall Gold. Days I. x. 283 Like the hectic beauty of one dying of consumption. |
c. Affected with hectic fever; consumptive.
| 1664 Phil. Trans. I. 24 All of them in time..become paralitick and dye hectick. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1820) 100 Thin, puny, yellow, hectic figures. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke iv, A pretty, hectic girl of sixteen. 1860 Piesse Lab. Chem. Wonders 54 Many young people with hectic cheeks. |
2. fig. a. Wasting, consuming. b. With reference to the hectic flush.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne (1634) 495 All enjoyings are not alike. There are some hecticke, faint and languishing ones. 1819 Shelley Ode W. Wind 4 The leaves..Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red. 1826 Mrs. Hemans For. Sanct. ii. xii, Day's last hectic blush. 1886 Dowden Shelley I. iii. 99 Thrill with vehement and hectic feeling. |
† 3. In etymological sense: Habitual, constitutional. Obs.
| 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. iii. (1851) 162 That hectick disposition to evill, the source of all vice. 1654 H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 5 He seemed naturally to affect a majestique carelesnesse, which was so hectique, so habitual in him as [etc.]. |
4. Stirring, exciting, disturbing; characterized by a state of feverish excitement or activity. colloq.
| 1904 Kipling Traffics & Discov. 210 Didn't I say we never met in pup-pup-puris naturalibus, if I may so put it, without a remarkably hectic day ahead of us? 1922 Westm. Gaz. 19 Aug., The hectic undulations of the mark. Ibid. 7 Nov., Those hectic inconsidered actions which kept the country in a state of crisis for some ten days. 1922 Daily Mail 21 Nov. 11 As additional excitements to the hectic finishes one horse was killed and the judge mistook the winner of the Leycester Nursery. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 117 Hectic show, an Air Force expression for flying very low. 1968 Daily Mirror 20 Aug. 9/2 Stretch bikini bottoms and loose towelling tops in hectic colours. |
B. n. (ellipt. use of the adj.)
1. a. A hectic fever.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. v. (Tollem. MS.), It helpeþ tisik and etik. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 279 Or þe patient falle into etikis. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 37 b, He is in an eticke or a consumption. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. iii. 68 Like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. 1651 Wittie tr. Primrose's Pop. Err. ii. 88 In them that have the consumption, the lungs especially are affected, and the whole body in hecticks. 1845 Budd Dis. Liver 237 She had much hectic and sweating. |
b. fig.
| c 1430 Lydg. æsop iii. 26 in Herrig's Archiv LXXXV. 25 With suche false etykes many man is shent. 1647 Case Kingdom 2 This heat of Presbytery proved..an Hectique in the body Politique of Scotland. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 77 Wishing, that constant hectic of a fool. 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such 30, I have often had the fools' hectic of wishing about the unalterable. |
2. A person affected with hectic fever; a consumptive person.
| a 1653 G. Daniel Idyll ii. 126 The Hecticke has y⊇ Day To cease in, but drinks Marrow. 1687 Willis Tunbridge in Harl. Misc. (1808) I. 587 As for hecticks, they are commonly of a fine texture of body. c 1800 K. White Time 102 The hectic, lull'd On Death's lean arm to rest. |
3. A hectic flush; transf. a flush or heightened colour on the cheek; also fig.
| 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 17 (Monk Calais), A hectic of a moment pass'd across his cheek. 1847 De Quincey Sp. Mil. Nun xvi. (1853) 41 One man's cheek kindled with the hectic of sudden joy. 1890 W. C. Russell Ocean Trag. III. xxxii. 193 Overhead the sky had fainted into a sickly hectic. |