| 词组 | hectic |
| 释义 | hectic This word is mentioned in several books of usage, including Bremner 1980, Copperud 1970, 1980, Bernstein 1965, and Evans 1957, and has been submitted to the usage panels of Heritage 1969 and Harper 1975, 1985—all because of its treatment in Fowler 1926. Fowler was upset with what is now the prevalent sense of the adjective: "filled with excitement or confusion." He based his objection on etymology, thus, as Copperud observes, failing to take note of his own observation that etymology does not always determine meaning, an observation which he had tucked under the heading True & False Etymology. (See etymological fallacy.) Hectic is derived from a Greek word meaning "habitual." In English it was applied to a persistent fever present in some diseases, and then it came to mean "having such a fever" and then "red, flushed" and eventually acquired (around 1904) its present usual sense, which is similar to the figurative use of feverish. Here are a few examples that relate to the several fever senses, in case you are unfamiliar with them: • Amelia found him up very early the next morning, more eager, more hectic, and more shaky than ever —W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848 • Hectic spots of red burned on his cheeks —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 • ... identify it with the hectic flush of a consumptive —Robert M. Adams, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 20 May 1971 These will probably seem more familiar: • I had a pretty hectic time for a while —John Buchan, Greenmantle, 1916 • No single reporter could do justice to the hectic weekend at the Waldorf —Joseph P. Lash, New Republic, 18 Apr. 1949 • ... which had survived the hectic activity —Norman Mailer, Harper's, March 1971 No one after Fowler finds fault with the extended sense. |
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