tetchy
/ˈtɛt͡ʃi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.82 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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..."
- "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."
- "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..."
- "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."
- "I warrant, sir, he is, as you say, a very precise acrimonious person—A tetchy repugnant kind of old gentleman."
- "They’re good boys, as I said afore; but they’re quick and tetchy—George, being the youngest, nat’rally is the tetchiest."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- British usage
Inflected Forms
tetchier (comparative)
tetchiest (superlative)
titchy (alternative)
techy (alternative, obsolete)
techie (alternative, obsolete)
teachy (alternative, obsolete)
teachie (alternative, obsolete)
teechy (alternative, obsolete)
tetchie (alternative, obsolete)
tecchy (alternative, obsolete)
titchie (alternative, obsolete)
tichy (alternative, obsolete)