Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Frantic
/ˈfræntɪk/adjective
Wildly hurried or agitated, usually by fear or pressure of time.
The Greek roots
φρενιτικός
phrenitikós
delirious, brain-fevered
Literally: “suffering in the mind”
Follow a root:φρενιτικός1 word
The story of the word
Same Greek fever as frenzy, arriving by a different French door. φρενιτικός described a patient delirious from inflammation of the φρήν, the diaphragm, which Greek medicine treated as the seat of thought. Middle English frentik kept the clinical charge and could mean insane. What survives is the outside view of the patient: someone moving fast and badly.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
frenzyfreneticphrenic
In a sentence
There was a frantic ten minutes of looking for the passports.
She sounded frantic on the phone, which was not like her.