"tetchy" meaning in English

See tetchy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈtɛt͡ʃi/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tetchy.wav [Southern-England] Forms: tetchier [comparative], tetchiest [superlative]
Etymology: Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare. Also variously derived from English tetch (“tantrum, fit of anger”); from Scots tache (“blotch, fault”); from Middle English tatch (“blemish”) &c. under influence from touchy, in turn derived from Old French tache, from proposed Vulgar Latin *tacca, from Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “sign”), from proposed Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-. Etymology templates: {{unc|en}} Uncertain, {{m|en|teachie}} teachie, {{m|en|tetch||tantrum, fit of anger}} tetch (“tantrum, fit of anger”), {{der|en|sco|tache||blotch, fault}} Scots tache (“blotch, fault”), {{der|en|enm|tatch||blemish}} Middle English tatch (“blemish”), {{m|en|touchy}} touchy, {{der|en|fro|tache}} Old French tache, {{der|en|VL.|*tacca}} Vulgar Latin *tacca, {{der|en|got|𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃||sign}} Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “sign”), {{der|en|ine-pro|*deyḱ-}} Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- Head templates: {{en-adj|er}} tetchy (comparative tetchier, superlative tetchiest)
  1. Synonym of touchy: easily annoyed or irritated, peevish, testy, irascible; also (figurative) extremely sensitive, difficult to manage, use, or work. Wikipedia link: List_of_Shakespeare_plays_in_quarto#Romeo_and_Juliet, Richard III (play), Romeo and Juliet Derived forms: touchy Related terms: tetchily, tetchiness
    Sense id: en-tetchy-en-adj-x389bjXM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Synonyms: touchy [synonym, synonym-of], titchy, techy [obsolete], techie, teachy, teachie, teechy, tetchie, tecchy, titchie, tichy, tertchy, tatchy, tachy

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for tetchy meaning in English (5.1kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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