Word of the Day:

October 16, 2022

frenetic

adjective frih-NET-ik

What it Means

Frenetic means “marked by excitement, disorder, or anxiety-driven activity.” It is synonymous with frenzied and frantic, both of which are also related etymologically to frenetic.

// The celebration was noisy and frenetic, lasting into the wee hours of morning.

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Frenetic in Context

“His sophomore and junior soccer seasons were jammed together due to the pandemic, playing in the spring and fall only months apart during a frenetic 2021 calendar year.” — Patrick Z. McGavin, The Chicago Tribune, 22 Aug. 2022

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Did You Know?

In modern use, frenetic can describe a focused and intense effort to meet a deadline, or dancing among a hyped-up crowd, but the word’s Middle English predecessor, frenetik, had a more specific meaning than “frantic or wild”: it was originally used to describe those exhibiting a severely disordered state of mind. If you trace frenetic back far enough, you’ll find that it comes from Greek phrenîtis, a term referring to an inflammation of the brain. (Phren, the Greek word for “mind” (among other meanings) is a root recognizable in schizophrenic.) As for frenzied and frantic, they’re not only synonyms of frenetic but relatives as well. Frantic comes from frenetik, and frenzied traces back to phrenîtis.