touchy C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities US /ˈtʌtʃi/ UK /ˈtʌtʃi/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 adj oversensitive and quick to take offense He gets touchy whenever anyone mentions his old job. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 adj · oversensitive and quick to... sensitiveirritableirasciblepricklytestypeevishtetchyoversensitive ↔ Opposites easygoingthick-skinnedplacidunflappable Word family Forms touchiness Derived forms touchilytouchiness Related forms touchtetchy Appears in Idioms (1) See all touchy-feely showing emotions or physical affection openly, sometimes in a way that seems excessive Etymology AI details From touch + -y, perhaps influenced by the earlier tetchy ('peevish'); touch is from Old French tochier, from Vulgar Latin *toccāre. tochier Old French *toccāre Latin View etymology graph -> Topics Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # touchy **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** adj **IPA (US):** /ˈtʌtʃi/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈtʌtʃi/ ## Meanings 1. oversensitive and quick to take offense ## Examples - He gets touchy whenever anyone mentions his old job. ## Synonyms - sensitive - irritable - irascible - prickly - testy - peevish - tetchy - oversensitive ## Antonyms - easygoing - thick-skinned - placid - unflappable ## Derived Forms - touchily - touchiness ## Related Forms - touch - tetchy ## Roots and Affixes - Root: tochier - Root: *toccāre ## Etymology From touch + -y, perhaps influenced by the earlier tetchy ('peevish'); touch is from Old French tochier, from Vulgar Latin *toccāre. ## AI Etymology Touchy comes from touch + -y, perhaps influenced by the earlier tetchy ('peevish'); touch is from Old French tochier, from Vulgar Latin *toccāre. The historical chain includes Old French tochier and Latin *toccāre. The quoted older sense, "peevish," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for touchy. The formation is best read as suffixal and borrowed: the word touchy carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "oversensitive and quick to take offense". English derivatives include touchily and touchiness; related English forms include touch and tetchy. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization. ## Topics - Describing Qualities - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown