tetchy

Meaning

Synonym of touchy: easily annoyed or irritated, peevish, testy, irascible; also (figurative) extremely sensitive, difficult to manage, use, or work.

Synonyms

irritable

techy

fretful

scratchy

peevish

fractious

cranky

touchy

peckish

pettish

petulant

bad-tempered

testy

grouchy

nettlesome

sorehead

spitfire

susceptible

warm

☀️

argumentative

fretty

choleric

cross

edgy

grumpy

hotheaded

huffy

ill-tempered

impetuous

impulsive

irascible

quarrelsome

quick-tempered

snappish

snappy

Translations

irritable

hırçın

irritadiço

petulante

atrabilaire

stizzoso

mürrisch

ombrageux

θυμώδης

permaloso

petulante

scontroso

grincheux

piccoso

maussade

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtɛt͡ʃi/

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-.