hectic

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hectic/ˈhektɪk/

▶adjective

• 1 full of incessant or frantic activity.

• 2 Medicine, archaic affected by or denoting a recurrent fever typically accompanying tuberculosis, with flushed cheeks and hot, dry skin.

▶noun Medicine, archaic a hectic fever or flush.

– derivatives
hectically adverb.

– origin ME etik, via OFr. from late L. hecticus, from Gk hektikos ‘habitual’.