tetchy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Easily annoyed or irritated; bad-tempered.

   He gets tetchy when he hasn't had enough sleep.

Simplified etymology

Tetchy, meaning “irritable,” dates from the late 16th century and is probably a variant of the old Scots word tache, “blotch” or “fault,” from French. Despite its similarity in form and meaning to testy, it has a different origin.

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.

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