Frantically means in a wild hurried way driven by anxiety. Search frantically, waving frantically, frantically busy.
The anxiety is what distinguishes it from merely fast: somebody working frantically is not working well. The word comes from the same root as frenzy, and both go back to a Greek word for inflammation of the brain.
1adverbfranticallyIn a wild hurried way driven by anxiety.
“He waved frantically at the driver, but the bus pulled away.”
frantically is a manner.
From frantic, from Greek phrenitis, inflammation of the brain. Frenzy is the same root.
Latin
phreneticus
Old French
frenetique
Middle English
frantike
English
frantic
English, today
frantically
Built from
From earlier franticly, equivalent to frantic + -ally. frantic comes from Middle English frantike, frentik, variant of frenetik, from Old French frenetique, from Latin phreneticus, alteration of phreniticus, from φρενιτικός (“mad, suffering from inflammation of the brain”), from φρενῖτις (“inflammation of the brain”), from φρήν (“the brain”). a doublet of frenetic and phrenitic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA