Noun: hectic
| Singular | hectic |
| Plural | hectics |
Sample Sentences
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[…] Do it England, / For like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, / And thou muſt cure me: […] [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:]
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The poor Franciscan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass’d across his cheek, but could not tarry […] [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:]
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For still he lay, and on his thin worn cheek / A purple hectic played like dying day / On the snow-tops of distant hills […] [1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza 147:]
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an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief [1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:]
Nouns inflected like hectic
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
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”). See: Middle English Nouns '
etik'.