Definition of TETCHY

tetchy

Meanings

Adjective Satellite

  • easily irritated or annoyed

Adj

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

Origin / 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-.

Scrabble Score: 14

tetchy is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
tetchy is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tetchy is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

tetchy is a valid Words With Friends word