tetchy

English

WOTD – 1 December 2015

Alternative forms

• titchy
• (obsolete) techy, techie, teachy, teachie, teechy, tetchie, tecchy, titchie, tichy, tertchy, tatchy, tachy

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-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛtʃi/

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Adjective

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.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Nurce: ...But as I said, when it did tast the wormwood on the nipple of my dug, & felt it bitter, pretty foole to see it teachie and fall out with Dugge...

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     King. And came I not at last to comfort you?
     Du. No by the holie roode thou knowst it well,
     Thou camst on earth to make the earth my hell,
     A greuous burthen was thy berth to me,
     Techie and waiward was thy infancie,
     Thy schoele-daies frightful, desperate, wild, and furious.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Nurse: […] But as I said, when it did taste the worme-wood on the nipple of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretie foole, to see it teachie and fall out with the Dugge...

   • 1605, Anthony Munday (translator), “Chapter 6”, in The Dumbe Diuine Speaker‎^[1], London: William Leake, translation of original by Giacomo Affinati d’Acuto Romano, page 58:

     Our hart is so narrowly limited that (by euery little distaste) we are strangely altered, and being in this teasty tetchy way, presently we let flye foorth much vnseemelines.

   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, edited by J. Bragg, The Road to Ruin‎^[2], Dublin, Act 5, page 65:

     I warrant, sir, he is, as you say, a very precise acrimonious person—A tetchy repugnant kind of old gentleman.

   • 1887, Bret Harte, A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready and Devil’s Ford‎^[3], Devil’s Ford, page 238:

     They’re good boys, as I said afore; but they’re quick and tetchy—George, being the youngest, nat’rally is the tetchiest.

   • 1920, H. G. Wells, “Chapter 6”, in Russia in the Shadows‎^[4]:

     […] the commonplace Communist simply loses his temper if you venture to doubt whether everything is being done in precisely the best and most intelligent way under the new régime. He is like a tetchy housewife who wants you to recognise that everything is in perfect order in the middle of an eviction.

Related terms

• tetchily
• tetchiness

Derived terms

• touchy

Translations

touchy — see touchy

Anagrams

• chetty

References

• “tetchy / techy, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “tetchy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “tetchy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “tetchy”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• "tetchy", in T.F Hoad's Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1996.